


A Book, a Debt, a Shop and a bit of Malice

by IHeShe



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: BDSM, Bestiality, Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Other, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:26:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 175,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24108211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IHeShe/pseuds/IHeShe
Summary: There is an odd shop in town, built in an uninhabited district, unknown to most people and nearly always closed. It's there that Ara finds herself working to pay off an huge financial debt to Eve, under the supervising of Oberon. The forced cohabitation will bring them both to the discovery of an unknown side of them and to an unexpected relationship.
Relationships: Ara Haan/Oberon
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	1. Room and Board. And a Choker

**Room and Board. And a Choker**

Awkward. If Ara had to describe the situation in one word, that would most likely be her pick. She was sitting at a table, Eve in front of her. The pub they were in was pretty much empty, only the bartender being there besides the two of them. It was summer, most people had gone off somewhere on holiday.

"So, didn't you at least notice the yolk of those eggs were blue when you cooked them?" Eve asked.

The previous day Ara had gone grocery shopping and met Eve on her way back home. There, somehow, they had switched their bags without realizing it. Thing is, while Ara had simply bought some eggs because apparently she had lost the ones she had at home, Eve was actually carrying something she was going to sell. She had a sort of menagerie, and while Ara knew she usually sold things from there, the thought of having taken the wrong bag never even crossed her mind. She didn't even know exactly what it was that she sold. Until Eve called her the next day.

"Well... eggs always take a weird color when I cook them, so... I thought that was normal..." she replied nervously. She knew the things coming from that menagerie were crazy expensive. Those eggs did taste a bit too good after all.

Eve scratched her head.

"Alright, I'm not really blaming you, but those were supposed to make me cash in a lot of money. You know my researches are expensive"

"How much were you going to sell those for?"

"Half a million each, which makes for four millions and a half in total. I already had a buyer, and telling him about this won't be pretty"

What followed was a minute or so of silence, which is to say how much time Ara needed to understand that Eve wasn't joking. Though, on second -actually, even on first- thought what kind of egg can possibly cost that much?

"You're kidding me?!" she shouted as she suddenly got up, slamming her hands against the table. That would have normally drawn the attention of what little customers were there, but luckily there were none, and the barman was an acquaintance of Eve and as such knew better than to mind her business rather than his own.

That said, Eve took a large book out from a bag and dropped it in front of her. By the look of it it had at least two thousand pages.

"... what is this?" Ara asked.

"What I had to go through to get those eggs. Each step and procedure, from finding out they actually exist, to getting the specimen, to raising it, to making sure it would lay eggs, to taking said eggs from it, plus a lot of other things. Complete with times and costs. You can read it and check everything if you don't trust me"

"Well..."

She took a couple of deep breaths and sat down again.

"I... I don't think I can find that much money..."

"I really wasn't expecting to get that sum back from you" Eve replied, somewhat nonchalantly.

"Then... what?"

"I have an idea. You know I have a... let's call it a menagerie, right?"

"I've... heard about it"

"But I don't run it myself. I tasked Oberon with the management of the structure, but lately I've noticed that some of the... residents are quite, let's say, stressed. In a rather specific way. I think you can help with that, as it's not something he, nor Ophelia or Ferdinand, would be suited for"

"So, basically... you're offering me a... job?"

"Well, you won't really get much pay since you'd be doing it to repay me, but let's say yes. It comes with room and board, and you can take a day off every week or so. Maybe"

"... I don't really have a choice, do I?"

A brief silence, then Eve got up.

"I'll send someone to pick you up tomorrow evening. Your house isn't that far from the menagerie, it shouldn't take long to get from one place to the other. Pack your stuff by then" she said with a neutral expression.

"... alright..."

As unrational as it was, Ara swore to never eat eggs again in her life.

* * *

The next day, either late in the afternoon or early in the evening, really it depended on who you asked to. Ara spent most of the day deciding what to take with her, though in the end she really didn't pack that much, just enough to fill a couple of suitcases, one of which was really long. She was somewhat nervous. Well, at least now she had a job? Sort of. She had quite the bad luck keeping one. Mainly because she had trouble waking up in the morning, as she got up late more often than not. A bit later than she had expected, someone knocked at the door. She opened it and found Ophelia standing there, and behind her was a cart, with no horses in sight. The door was open, and inside, illuminated -probably- by a lamp was Eve.

"Oh... uh, hi. It's been a long time since we last met"

"Not untrue" she replied.

A brief silence, then Ara noticed the maid -because Ophelia's clothing did resemble a maid outfit- had her gaze on Ara's luggages.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll carry these myself"

"If you say so"

Ara exited and, with some hesitation, locked the door. She had the feeling she wouldn't have come back there for quite some time. Then she walked to the cart and got in, sitting in front of Eve, who was holding a bag in her hands. Ophelia sat at the driver's seat, though since there were no horses nor anything else Ara failed to grasp the reason why she didn't sit with her and Eve.

"I have a bit more free time than expected, so I decided to come here myself. You seem worried"

"I... a bit, I guess"

Ara had known Eve for quite a long time, but she still couldn't understand what she was thinking. Whatever it was that she was supposed to be, she was pretty sure it was something she'd have never expected. Which... wasn't really a relaxing thought.

"So, exactly, what is it that I have to do?"

"You'll probably find that out tomorrow"

Ara gave Eve a rather confused look, and all further attempts at finding out what the job really was proved useless. Half an hour to an hour later, the carriage stopped, in front of a rather large, two storey building. By the look of it, all nearby structures were empty. Quite... unsettling.

"Mind coming down?" Eve asked. Apparently Ara had dazed off loking around and didn't notice she had gotten off.

"Ah, sure"

The menagerie looked a lot more like an ordinary shop than she had expected, at least from the outside. Well, there weren't any external showcases, but aside from that there wasn't anything off about it. The complete lack of people around, on the other hand, bothered her. Eve walked in -after Ophelia had opened the door for her-, followed by Ara who was still carrying her luggages, then the maid entered the building as well, closing the door. The inside actually looked more like an house than a menagerie. A rather empty house with little to no furniture, but still an house. Well, not that Ara had ever visited a menagerie anyway. Aside from those going to the first floor, there were stairs heading down. The animals -because they kept animals there, right?- most likely were down, unless there was some sort of very large garden she had somehow missed, which she thought unlikely. Overall it was a bit... surprising? Well, the whole place was completely different from what Ara had imagined. Eve walked to the kitchen, sat at the small table -there were four chairs- and started drinking. Apparently someone -well, Oberon most likely- had prepared tea beforehand. Unsure of what to do, Ara stood there, playing with her fingers behind her back for a minute or so.

"Your room isn't going to come down" Ophelia then said.

Ara turned around and saw her standing on the stairs to the first floor. It took her a moment or two to understand what she meant, then she grabbed her luggages and followed her upstairs. As they walked, Ara noticed that there weren't any knick-knacks nor decorations of sort. It was probably how one would imagine the house of someone who had just moved and had yet to unpack his stuff, though there were no boxes to be seen. Guess Oberon was a minimalist? No, wait, that's not what minimalism was, right? Well, Ara really wasn't sure.

"You are its" Ophelia said as she pointed to a door "And in case, the bathroom is there" she added as she pointed to the closest door.

There was something about the way she spoke which was... weird. Something not really subtle. Ignoring that, Ara walked in. The room was... normal-sized, if that meant anything. There was a wardrobe, a large mirror, two drawer, a couple of closed windows, a small table with a chair and, of course, the bed. Which... actually looked really fancy, at least when compared to everything else. Maybe because it was a canopy one. It sort of made her feel uncomfortable, but just a bit. The furniture wasn't excessive, but compared to the rest of the house that room looked cramped. She wondered for a moment whetever she should have unpacked her stuff or went down to see if Eve had anything to tell her, and decided for the former. Meanwhile, Ophelia had walked back downstair. As she headed down, Oberon came walking up from the underground floor, carrying two small bags. He left them on the floor near the entrance door and turned to Ophelia. The two of them stared at each other for a minute or so before speaking.

"It's been a while"

"A while indeed"

"There is a bottle of wine on a shelf in the kitchen"

The maid nodded. Driking was a sort of hobby for her. A rather weird one, for a machine. She'd take the bottle home -or rather, to the lab since that's where she usually stayed- and drank it there.

"Anything new?" Eve asked as she walked out of the kitchen.

"No, mistress" he replied.

She then handed him the bag she had brought with her.

"Make her wear these. One of the keys is inside there, I'll keep the other"

Oberon looked inside, took one of the two objects and brought it up.

"What is the purpose of this, if I may ask?"

As in, he knew what that was used for and how, he just wasn't sure why Ara had to put that on.

"That..." Eve replied as she looked up to one of the surveillance cameras, hidden well enough to be nearly impossible to spot without knowing where to look "That's just for fun, really"

She then gave him a few... peculiar instructions, then headed downstairs.

"Since I'm here already I'll give some of them a quick look" she said as she gestured him to follow her.

As for Ophelia, she went to the kitchen, found the bottle and wondered whetever she should have drank it immediatly or later. She opted for the latter, grabbed the bottle and brought it to the cart, then walked back in. A while later, Eve and Oberon walked back upstairs.

"Alright, we're done here"

Ophelia grabbed the two bags Oberon had left near the entrance and followed Eve outside. Not much later, Ara came walking down the stairs. It had been... probably a few years since the last time she had seen him. And more importantly, she had actually never saw his face as, back then, he always had an helmet on. Had it not been for the chain going from his neck to his right wrist, she maybe wouldn't even have realized the dark-red eyed man with spiky black hair reaching to his shoulder was actually Oberon. Though his clothing didn't change at all either.  
"Oh, it's - I mean, hi. Ehr, good evening"

"Good evening"

"I -no- you - I mean- your helmet?"

"Some of the creatures hosted here get nervous when they can't look you in the eyes"

Creatures. Whan an odd choice of word.

"Right, exactly what do you -should I say we?- have here? I mean, down there? I guess" she asked as she looked at the stairs heading down.

"It would be simpler to show you rather than telling you"

"All... right, ok. Then, what must I do? Eve was somewhat... really vague about it"

"Mistress didn't tell you?"

"Not really, no"He thought for a moment.

"It would be better to show you what she meant tomorrow. The one I thought to make you start with should be asleep at this hour"

Oberon was... quite perplexed by Eve's plan. True, the lack of a certain specific activity did stress the animals -let's call them like that for now- but he wasn't sure that using Ara for that was a good idea. It also was... rather impolite for Eve to trick a friend that much. She planned to get Ara greatly indebted with her to make sure she wouldn't run away in case she didn't like the job. She waited for the right moment, then set everything up. Things went smoothly and now she had Ara in her hand. Well, she actually hadn't expected her to cook all those eggs, but only one was really worth the sum Eve had mentioned so she didn't really care that much about it. No, he really thought all of that to be a bit too much impolite. Then again, he was merely a servant, with no real rights to say anything about his mistress's decisions. That, and most tasks there were automated so he actually had more free time than one could think. Maybe Ara's presence would have eased his boredom a bit.

"... what about Eun?" he asked then, a thought that suddenly crossed his mind. He had expected to hear her, given the situation Ara was in.

"Oh, she, well, left, around an year ago" she replied, looking to her own feet "She said I didn't need her anymore and that she didn't want to interfere with my life too much anymore. ... though her long permanence inside of me did leave some after-effects..."

"Which effects?"

"W-well, I'd rather not talk about it... she said they should disappear with time anyway... probably" she said, blushing a bit "W-well, alright then. Good night" she said.

"Good night"

She walked back to her room, took off her wedges and socks and dropped them next to the bed, then took off her large, white and orange coat, her short, tight dress, white on the front and black on the sides, her short, orange skirt and left them on a chair. She removed her pantyhose and white, tight gloves and put them on top of the other clothes. She then took off the hairpins and ran two fingers along her cowlick, as if to check if it was still there. And then she went to sleep, wearing only her black underwear. Eun's absence was... a good thing, though it did sound bad to think that. Good because there was no way she'd have let Ara do what Eve had brought her there for without opposing it.

* * *

The night had gone by peacefully. And by the time Ara woke up, it was almost midday already. She got up from the bed, yawned and stretched her arms, then walked out. Still too sleepy to really think rationally, she walked out of her room and looked for the bathroom, which she found actually quite quickly as it was behind the closest door. Ophelia did tell her where it was, but she was still too asleep to actually remember about it. There she went to the sink, grabbed the first brush her hands could find and started brushing her teeth. Then she splashed some water on her face, which helped a lot with her actually waking up. That's when she noticed a rather large mirror resting against the wall. And that's when she realized she had been walking around in her underwear in an house which wasn't hers. And... wait, was that Oberon's tootbrush? She went back to her room, got dressed and walked downstair, to the kitchen. She was somewhat surprised to find Oberon cooking lunch.

"Good morning"

"Good morning. ... ehm, the tootbrush in the bathroom..."

"That's a new one"

"It... oh, ok"

Right, Oberon didn't need to eat. Well, Eve didn't really need to either, but she did so anyway. Maybe she liked how food tasted. Which probably meant the food there had been bought recently just for her. Lunch went by normally, if maybe a bit awkwardly for Ara as it felt a bit odd to eat next to him as he simply sat doing nothing. Maybe because he noticed it, or maybe simply because he was bored, Oberon at one point took a book from a drawer -why was there a book in a kitchen drawer, I don't know- and started reading. Ara couldn't see the title from where she was sitting though. After she had finished eating, they cleaned up then Oberon asked her to wait there and walked out to another room. A couple of minutes later he came back with something in his hand, a black brecelet made of... metal. Which metal, I really have no idea. It had a simple but somewhat elegant design.

"Human smell upsets some of our guests, this emits an scent which should cover it. It's rather faint, it shouldn't bother you"

"Oh, alright. Thanks" she replied as she took it "Isn't it too large though?"

Oberon thought for a moment about it, then spoke "That's a choker, not an armlet"

"Ah"

After a brief hesitation Ara put it around her neck. She fumbled a bit with it trying to close it, then something clicked. She wasn't sure how it worked but it seemed convenient as it made it impossible for it to accidentally fall off. It fit perfectly around her neck, neither too large nor too small, and it wasn't big enough to really be bothersome. It was a bit cold though.

"Say, how do I open it?" she asked as she ran her hands over it searching for a button or something like that.

"Mistress has the key"

Ara froze.

"... key? You mean I need a key to take it off?"

"Yes"

"Why didn't you tell me that before I put it on?!"

"I've been told to make you wear it. I figured it'd been simpler by not telling you that detail"

Ara took a couple of deep breaths. Calm down. It was locked, sure, but it was just a choker. Right?

"Why is it locked anyway?"

"I'm not sure, but I guess it's to make sure you don't run away before having payed off the debt. There is a display on it showing how much of it is left, though I guess you need a mirror to see it"

That, and because the collar had a couple more of functions Ara possibly wouldn't have been too happy about.

"Really?" she asked as she found said display with her fingers. That -and the keyhole next to it- weren't there when she put it on.

"With that said, I think it's time for you to get to work"

"Oh, f..."

She was about to say "finally", but then she remembered she had yet to know what the "work" was. She followed Oberon downstairs, until they reached a door with no knob. Instead there were two buttons on the wall next to it. He pushed one of them, and the door opened. A bit worried, Ara stepped inside the elevator with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be a stupid and short introduction, but it ended up twice as long as I had originally intended.
> 
> Some "action" next chapter.


	2. Unwanted Massage

**Unwanted Massage  
**

The elevator was rather large, enough for a dozen or so of people to comfortably fit inside. Oberon pushed a button with a "one" drawn on it and they started moving downwards.

"How deep does this go?" she asked.

"There are twelve underground levels, each one is built fifteen to twenty meters below the upper one"

"Wait, fifteen multiplied by twelve... that much?!"

"That much"

The elevator stopped and the door opened. They stepped out, inside a room which would have been somewhat large, if not for the elevator taking up a good chunk of it. A few lamps illuminated the place. There were four bookshelves, none of which was more than half full, and every book seemed to be identical. Four doors, one on each wall, and a desk with a computer on it. Overall a quite empty space.

"This way" he said as he headed to one of the doors.

Ara followed him. On the door was written "One - One". They stepped into a long, rather large hallway, long enough to take them around five minutes to reach the other end of it. From there they entered another small room, with walls covered by shelves. They were all hosting vials, and while some were empty, most were filled with some sort of blue liquid, though the tonality seemed to vary from one to the other. There was a closed, tall cupboard and a single door. As Oberon opened the cupboard and took out two large bottles of water, Ara stretched her arms. She felt a bit stiff, which was quite weird since she's been up for quite a while already. Shrugging it off, she walked through the door with Oberon, who closed it behind her. The room they had just entered was actually a dome, with grass and ground instead of the floor. The upper half of the dome seemed to mimic the sky, as there were also a few visible clouds. Something also produced a weak breeze. There were some trees and bushes here and there, a small pond and the reproduction of some sort of old, stone-made ruin, around as big as a camping tent.

"... wouldn't it be easier to keep them outside rather than... this?"

"It's a security measure"

Oberon walked up to the ruin, left the bottles on the ground and gestured Ara to come closer. She almost tripped on her own legs.

"You look dizzy"

And her face was a bit red, but he didn't mention that.

"I-I think I might have gotten a fever... it's a bit hot in here or is it me?"

Then, something touched her foot. She looked down and saw a... goo? A blue slime, around as big as a person curled up in fetal position.

"W-wait what?!"

She stepped away, but one of her legs gave out and she ended up falling on the grass.

"Don't worry, it doesn't eat meat"

"Can't you help me out here?!"

The slime crawled up on her, covering her leg, then the other, then started moving over her chest. Ara started to shake it off with her hands and, while it was quite sticky and, well, slimy it came off rather easily, pieces of it being sent flying around. That's, until Oberon grabbed her hands. Apparently he had sat down behing her while she was concentrated on getting that thing off her.

"What?"

"You are hurting it"

"Of course I am!"

He grabbed her right wrist with one hand and used his left arm to hold her in place.

"It feeds on fluids, occasionally on small insects too, you have nothing to worry about"

"As if!"

She tried to shake both of them off, but her limbs felt weak. And she also felt somewhat hot.

"I put a muscle relaxant in your food. I apologize, but I thought it would have been better as you most likely wouldn't have reacted too nicely"

He didn't really like using things like that, but there was a leftover vial from some time ago and he thought that was a good way to use it.

"Why in the world -actually wait, whamphg?!"

Oberon moved her wrists together to be able to pin them down to her stomach with one hand and covered her mouth with the other.

"It doesn't have a good hearing, but if you shout that much it will make it nervous"

She tried to say -scream- something, producing only muffled sounds. She quickly realized she could only move her legs around, and not much because she couldn't put any strenght into them. The slime felt... warm, actually, which made the contact with it a bit less unpleasant. It wasn't big enough to completely envelope her, so he had left her arms, neck and head free. It slid under her clothes rather easily, and feeling it against her skin even though she was clothed made her feel naked. She blushed a bit. A couple or so of minutes went by with nothing happening.

"It has calmed down" he said. Apparently the slime avoided direct contact with Oberon, maybe because he wasn't made of flesh.

Then it started to warm up and... move? Ara couldn't really tell with her eyes, but while it had remained still before, the goo was now rubbing against her skin. The temperature was now high enough to make her sweat, and... it was rubbing agaist her nipples and between her legs. She blushed, and couldn't help but feel the stimulation. She struggled against and moved her legs around a bit, all to no avail.

"Relax, it won't harm you"

The only reason she didn't glare at Oberon was that she couldn't with him sitting behing her. Then, the slime started to... twist on itself? It was hard to tell an Ara could only use her sense of touch to tell, but whatever it was doing, the feeling against her skin grew stronger. Her cheeks turned red as she realized the pressure and the rubbing on her breasts and between her legs were making her excited. Her nipples were getting hard, which made her want to bury her face somewhere. Now she was grateful that Oberon was covering her mouth, as some sounds might have otherwise escaped her. She had mostly stopped resisting, both because of the muscle relaxant and because it sort of felt like a massage. An extremely unconventional one. The slime was now hot to the touch, and had started sucking her sweat off her skin, which added yet another stimulation, which felt particularly strong on her nipples. Then it started to suck on her entrance, which nearly made her jump. Oberon felt her breath getting a bit ragged against his hand, and guessed from there how the situation was. Ara started struggling against his grasp again, but she could muster so little strenght it was as if she wasn't even really trying to escape. Then he moved his hand from her mouth to her wrists. Not having expected it, Ara let a small moan escape from her lips. Her face turned even redder.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Everything..." she replied, though this time she didn't shout.

The slime was now also running itself against her skin, which made her feel even hotter, to stimulate her perspiration. Though its running against her privates made her feel hot in a different way. It wasn't actually a strong stimulation, but since she was also feeling it on one thigs and on the lower part of her back it was making her strongly aroused, though she didn't want to admit it to herself. She moaned a bit when it started sucking harder against her skin and, in particular, her nipples, and then tried to bite her own lips to prevent that from happening again. However, the relaxant was still spreading through her body and she found out she couldn't put much strenght in her jaw as well. Oberon noticed this and moved his hands away from her wrists. He kept her a bit away from him -probably because the slime would have moved away from her back if she leaned against him- with one hand while he grabbed one of the bottles with the other. He opened it and brought it to Ara's mouth.

"Here, drink"

"T... thanks..." she said, though she wasn't sure she really had to say it given what was going on. But the slime was really hot and she needed something to drink, and so she drank.

Oberon then moved away, letting her slowly fall on her back, against the grass. It was quite short, enough to not be a bother. She started to think that, more than a muscle relaxant, what he had put in her lunch had to be some sort of paralyzing medicine because she could hardly move her fingers now. Her breath was ragged, and the rubbing and sucking between her legs was more pleasurable than she was willing to admint. Oberon was sitting with his legs crossed right next to her, staring, though his expression was almost unsettingly neutral. From that angle, he could also notice something.

"If you want to drink again just tell me"

Ara didn't reply. As much as she hated to think it, that was... quite nice. Well, she was sweating a lot, but aside from that it wasn't bad... actually, if not for it being on her private areas it would have been a really good message, if maybe a bit daring. But the slime was also underneath her underwear, and the pleasure was building up. Oberon locked his gaze on her face. One of her eyes had partially turned red, and a few small strands of her hair had taken on a ligther color, straight up white at the base. Then Ara closed her eyes and tried to ignore the tingling she had started to feel between her legs, sensation which slowly but steadily grew stronger. Then they remained like that for quite a while, in silece, except for Ara letting out a weak moan every now and then between her quite ragged breaths. The slime had grown a bit larger, though not that much, and at some point she had started wishing for it to get rougher as at that point she was really frustrated, the stimulation not being enough to bring her to a climax. No way she'd have ever said it though.

Around a quarter of her hair was now mostly white. As for her eyes, she was still keeping them closed so Oberon couldn't tell about them. She had emptied a whole bottle and around half of the other, but aside from that she didn't know for how long she had been in that state. Not too long she guessed, as given how hot it was inside the slime, she would have drank a lot more had she been there for, say, an hour. Or at least she thought. Though she was getting her strenght back. With quite the effort, and in around a couple of minutes, she managed to stand on her arms and sit down. At the same time, the slime started to slowly crawl off her. Oberon handed her the bottle. He noticed one of her eyes was nearly completely red.

"Need help?"

She moved an hand to the bottle, tried to grab it and quickly gave up, then nodded. He then held it against her mouth and helped her drink. Once she was done, he got up and walked to the door.

"I'll be right back" he said as he walked out.

She... sort of wanted to punch him. She knew he was just doing whatever Eve had ordered him to, but punching him would have most likely made her feel better. The slime was now covering only her legs. She relaxed a bit, her breath calming down. She almost felt cold due to the sudden change of temperature against her skin. She brought an hand between her legs and, shily, slid it underneath her skirt, pantyhose and panties, then pulled it out. She blushed as she saw her fingers a bit wet. She brushed them against the grass to try to clean them, then grabbed her cowlick and pulled it down to look at it. It was white, and she guessed a good chunk of her hair was as well. She then ran her hands on her head and on the lowest part of her back. She took a breath of relief as she found no ears nor tails. Ever since Eun left, whenever she got too emotional or excited she'd turn into the same aspect Eun had. Granted, she couldn't turn into a fox, and it was mostly only an external change -mostly- but still, she didn't like it that much as it made her really easy to read. ... not that she had ever been good at hiding that sort of things, though.

With all of that said, there were three things on her mind at the moment. The first was to get out of that room, something she couldn't do as she still couldn't stand on her feet. The second was to have a proper explanation, though she was sure it was going to be something she didn't really want to hear. The last one was to get to either her room or the bathroom and, well, touch herself. Because the damn slime had left her aroused without getting her off. The thought was enough to make her blush again. Then, Oberon walked back in, a bag in his hand. He walked up to the slime, which had now completely detached itself from Ara, kneeled down next to it and pulled out of the bag two vials just like those in the rooms they had walked in from. He then ran them against the slime and filled them with it, closing the two ampoules and putting them away. The slime, now noticeably smaller -more than it should have been- crawled away, hiding in the small ruin.

"... what?"

"It should die in a week or so inside here without drying up. Then it should be ready to be sold"

"For what?"

"As pudding, I think"

"You're... kidding, right?"

"I don't know what the mistress does with what i -we, I guess- provide from this place"

"W... whatever, just help me get back on my feet"

"There is one last thing the mistress asked me to do before that"

For some reason, Ara felt the urge to run away. Too bad her legs weren't answering at all to her orders.

"If I may ask" he said then "Are these the after-effects you mentioned?" he said as he pointed to his eyes and hair.

"W-well, yes"

Oberon then helped her get on her... knees? She gave him an inquisitive -and rather worried- look, at which he simply pushed her forward, making her fall on her arms. He did grab her shoulder to make sure she wouldn't hit her face too hard against the ground though.

"Wait, what are you... hey!"

He had moved behind her and sat down on her legs, with her rear right in front of him. He guessed she was blushing now, as the white on her hair had just expanded a little.

"I apologize for this" he said as he pulled her skirt up and pantyhose down "I'm just doing what the mistress told me"

"And what is it that she told you?!" she screamed as she tried to get away, but her muscles -those responding to her- still felt far too weak for that, plus he was sitting on her legs.

He then... pulled her panties down. Either he didn't notice her wetness -the slime drank that too, right? The thought wasn't really pleasant- or he simply didn't comment.

"Wait -wait wait wait what are you doing?!"

She felt something cold around her waist, and Oberon was cold to the touch so... no, wait, those weren't his hands. She heard something clicking, the same way the chocker did when she put it on. Wait... Oberon got up and offered her an hand to get back up, but she gave him the worst glare she could put up at the moment and refused his help. Which meant it took her around three minutes to manage to get into a normal sitting position. She then looked at her waist. Leaving aside that her clothes had yet to be fixed, there was something wrong around her waist.

"What's this?!" she shouted as she pointed to the chastity belt firmly locked on her.

"I admit I'm not sure why the mistress wanted you to wear it" Oberon replied.

Ara's eyes quickly fell to the keyhole.

"The key! Hand it over, now!"

"That's against the orders I was given"

"I couldn't care less about them, give me the key!"

"A thousand ed will be detracted from your debt for each hour you wear it, while two thousand and a half will be added each time you take if off and for each hour you're not wearing it out of work time. Removing it for work doesn't count either. That's what the mistress said. Of course, feeding it" he said as he pointed to the ruin the slime was hiding in "also lessened your debt"

Ara stopped to think. That...

"What the hell is Eve thinking coming up with something like this?!"

"... In all honesty, I'm not sure"

Even with all of that being said, however, Ara still felt tingly between her legs.

"W... whatever, just give me key. I... I need to go to the bathroom"

"You don't need to take it off to use the bathroom" Oberon explained "There is a small hole in the front, and the rear is simply open"

Blushing even more, Ara thought about an excuse. She couldn't simply tell him she wanted to masturbate.

"Wait, you still haven't told me what I'm supposed to do here. And why did I have to go through this?!"

"Usually this slime can survive simply by drinking water, but the mistress wondered if drinking an human's fluid would make it taste better. She could sell it at an higher price if that were the case, provided there was someone to feed it every now and then"

A brief silence.

"Are you kidding me?!"

"Not really" he replied as he sat down.

"You mean, no, how many slimes am I supposed to... feed?"

"There are only two" he replied "One here and another in a different room, though the other one is quite different from this. We host other kind of creatures as well. The mistress wants you to either feed or..." he stopped for a moment, thinking about a good way to put it. He found none, so he simply said things the way they were "... or mate with some. I'll always be present to make sure nothing goes wrong, though I think you'd rather not have me around"

Ara froze. She remained perfectly still for probably ten minutes. It almost looked like she was dead, and at some point Oberon did check her pulse, just to be sure she was still among the livings.

"Are you - what the hell - what?!"

"That's how things are"

"And you expect me to just do any of that?!"

"Leaving aside the fact that you just did" he replied, which made Ara blush a bit "I think you don't really have a choice" he said as he pointed to his neck.

Ara touched the choker as if to remember herself she was wearing it.

"Next time I see Eve I swear I'll..."

Oberon looked up to the fake sky.

"It's almost time for dinner" he said.

Ara looked up too.

"You mean it mimics the outsid- wait, how long have we been here?"

"Six hours"

She held her face in her hands.

"Just... just help me get to my room..."

And so he did, carrying the bag with one hand while with the other arm he helped Ara standing. She fixed her clothes a bit -her panties couldn't really be pulled up much due to the chastity belt- and leaned on Oberon as they walked out. He left the vials on the walls of the room before going to the elevator, then to the ground floor and all the way to Ara's room, and there he made her sit on the bed.

"Do you have any preferences for dinner?"

"Anything which doesn't paralyze me..."

Then he walked out, closing the door behind him. Ara turned to the mirror. Her previously red eye was now partially amber-colored again most of her hair was black again. She waited a few minutes then tried to get up. Her legs were shaking, but she managed to stand on her own. A bit slowly, she walked to the door and locked it, then went in front of the mirror. She raised her skirt, pulled the pantyhose down and looked at the belt. It was... sturdy. There really was a small opening in the front and when she turned around she found out that it left her rear exposed, which did mean she could use the bathroom without problems, but... she touched her inner thigh and found it dry. The conversation with Oberon did calm her down a bit, but she was still, well, aroused. She tried to slide a finger underneath the belt, but it was too tight for that. Normally she would have probably scratched at it, but she was quite angry at the moment. She went to the wardrobe and took out her spear -because she decided to leave it inside there for some reason- grabbed it relatively near the tip and pointed it at the belt. Then she stopped.

_... maybe I shouldn't... ?_

When all was said and done, she still had an huge debt towards Eve, and if keeping it on really counted as paying it off... that, and trying to break it with a spear would have been a bit reckless, especially with her body still weak. She left her weapon against the wall and let herself fall on the bed. Then she remembered that the choker had a display showing how much of her debt was left. She stood back up, walked to the mirror and searched for it. The choker was loose enough for her to turn it around her neck, and she found it pretty much immediatly. That said, half of what was written on it was incomprehensible. As in, mixed with the numbers were other characters, and she had no idea what those symbols meant. She tried to read it by simply omitting them, but the number remaining was far too low to be accurate.

"Oh, come on..."

Then someone -well, Oberon, who else was there besides the two of them?- knocked.

"Dinner is ready"

"Ok" she simply replied.

She was more thirsty than hungry to be honest, but eating something couldn't hurt. When she walked down she found Oberon sitting at the table, which was again prepared for just one person. He was reading a book, though once again Ara couldn't see its cover. Dinner went by in a somewhat awkward silence, and once she had finished eating she walked back to her room just as loudly.

"Good night" he said as she walked out of the kitchen, without looking away from the book.

Ara didn't feel like replying.


	3. Sticky Situation

**Sticky Situation  
**

Ara woke up at a more reasonable hour the next day. Still, it took her almost a whole hour to actually get out of the bed, and once she did she looked at herself in the mirror. Both her eyes and hair had gone completely back to normal. When she walked down she found breakfast already on the table, though Oberon wasn't there. Ignoring it, she took out something else from the shelves and made something to eat herself, as after the previous day she didn't really trust the food Oberon made. Well, not what he prepared in the first half of the day at least. She finished eating and dediced to look around the building, as she had really only seen her room, the kitchen and the bathroom. Turns out every other room was empty, except for one so full of bookshelves it was hard to even get inside and the pantry, but that was probably too small to really be called a room. That, and there was a locked door on the first floor, quite close to her room. As she was about to go back to the library -the amount of books there was almost comparable to that of a proper shop- she stumbled upon Oberon.

"Good morning"

"G... good morn..." she didn't finish the sentence, still quite... upset about the previous day. Though she suspected that acting that was was somewhat childish.

"Your work hours aren't in the morning"

"There isn't much to do here though"

"You can order something from a store if you want"

"With what money?" Ara replied, now somewhat depressed.

"Good point"

She spent what was left of her free time looking at the books. There was quite the variety, but most of them didn't seem really interesting, not to her at least. That, and Ara wasn't really the reading type. As in, she would read a book from time to time, but spending all of her time reading? Not really, no. Just as she was about to head back to her room, she met Oberon again.

"The lunch is ready, in case you're hungry"

"Wait, already?"

"It's a little past midday"

Ara thought about a couple of things for a few moments before replying.

"I'm -uh- not really hungry"

"You should get to work then"

She immediatly regretted what she had just said.

"Actually, I think I'll eat something"

"I didn't put anything in the food, if that's what you're thinking about"

"... well, sort of..." she replied with her gaze locked on her own feet.

Lunch went by... faster than she wanted it to. Less than half an hour later, they were both inside the elevator. Ara was nervous, and her toying with her cowling made it quite obvious. When the door opened, they found themselves inside a room exactly the same as the one of the previous day. She noticed he had one of his cross-shaped, bladed tonfa resting on a belt around his waist.

"It this the first floor again?" she asked, assuming the underground levels were numbered diametrically to the upped ones.

"No, it's the third. This room doesn't change from one level to the other" he answered as he led her to a door -the "Three - Four"-, then an hallway, then another room. This one was different, the vials on the walls replaced with what seemed to be rolls of white thread. Well, there were a wardrobe, a table, a chair and a... was that a washing machine? Just as Ara was looking around, Oberon put something on the table. She turned around and saw a key.

"Since you have to take the belt off for work, I thought you'd rather do it yourself rather than having me do it"

"W... well, that's true..."

Oberon then simply turned around, facing the wall. Then, a minute or so of silence. Ara took the key, and thought for a moment about running away. She quickly discarded the idea though. Leaving aside the fact that, knowing Eve, that choker surely had some function she didn't know about -maybe some even Oberon didn't know about-, she was indebt. Somewhat hesitantly, she raised her skirt, pulled her pantyhose down and started looking for the keyhole, sending frequent glances at Oberon to make sure he wasn't looking. A... somewhat stupid thing to do, as not only he had seen her already, he probably wasn't that interested. Probably. She unlocked the belt, took it off and left it on the chair, then put her clothes back in order. The chastity belt wasn't much bigger than a normal pair of panties, which is why she could still wear her pantyhose over it, but now that she had taken it off she felt... quite exposed. Her heart was starting to beat faster, also at the thought of what she was about to go through. Not that she really had a precise idea.

"Are you done?"

"Y-yes"

He turned around.

"Do you think you can hold you voice down? If you were to scream they might become somewhat aggressive"

"I... guess? ... I'm not that sure..." she replied as she turned to the nearest wall to take a closer look at the thread "... wait, what's inside th -mghh?!"

As she was asking that, Obeon put a gag on her mouth from behind, with a dreadfully familiar click as it closed around her. It wasn't pressurized, she could still breath with her mouth, but it muffled her voice quite a lot. And, of course, made it pretty much impossible to speak. In a comprehensible way at least.

"Mpff?!" she tried to shout as she pointed to the gag, which resembled the choker in every possible way.

"Just to make sure. I'll take it off once you're done"

She tried to argue, but quickly realized it was impossible to make out what she was trying to say, and Oberon probably wouldn't have taken it off anyway.

"Are you sure you want to keep your clothes on? They might get dirty. Or torn. Though I can fix them for you later, if anything happens"

She looked at herself for a brief moment, then at Oberon, quite agitated, before trying to say with her hands that she wasn't taking them off. Whatever it is that she had to do, she was going to do it with as much clothing on as possible. Being pantyless was already bad enough by itself.

"Alright"

He walked to the door and opened it, with Ara following right behind him. They entered a small, cubical room with transparent walls, through which they could see another dome. Unlike the one in which the slime was hosted, however, this one was mostly occupied by a... rock? A massive boulder, so large it could be considered a cave, full of holes which by the look of it ran deep inside of it, took up almost all the space of the room.

"Mfh... mgpgh?"

"They don't like sunlight too much" he replied as he opened the trasparent door and walked outside the cubical room.

Ara was getting even more worried, but she didn't really have a choice and followed him. He closed the door behind her and headed inside the rock. She took a deep breath and followed him. The inside of the boulder was... well, dark. There were some rays of light coming in from a few of the upper holes, but it was barely enough to see where they were headed. Actually, had Oberon not been in front of her Ara might have easily bumped into the walls of the cave a few times. Walking was somewhat difficult as the floor was sticky, and most of the passages were too small for them. Maybe because of that, Oberon stopped. There was hardly any light there, and Ara almost couldn't even make out Oberon's silhouette in front of her.

"Here should be fine" he said as he turned and walked behind her, who turned around to see where he was going.

Which is, right there. Just as he had gotten past her, he rested an hand on her shoulder and pushed her back, not violently but with enough strenght to make her lose her balance.

"Mghf?!"

Ara instinctively braced herself for the impact with the ground, which being made of rocks was rather hard, but she never reached it. She had gotten stuck on something soft, thin and sticky. A... net? She looked around and saw what she had fallen on. A web. She was lying on it, at around a seventy degree angle. She forced her legs back and her upper half forward to get out of it without losing her balance. The threads were resistant but not enough to really stop her. Then, right before tearing the web, her left arm stopped moving, something having blocked it. Ara turned around and saw a spider standing on the web. It was a perfectly normal spider, if not for the fact that it was around as large as her whole chest and abdomen combined. It had enveloped her hand and a part of her arm in its thread, locking it to the web. She didn't scream -not that she could, really- since she had seen much larger spiders. She could have still gotten out of the web, if not for the fact that she hesitated. She was supposed to do... things... with them, right? Which meant, why get away in the first place? Well, because it was quite repelling. And she had no idea how spiders mating worked. Those few moments she spent thinking about it, however, were enough for three other spiders to arrive, and since she was both focused on the first one and lost in her thoughts she failed to notice them.

"Mghf?!"

By the time she realized more had come, they had already firmly secured her to the web. They then renforced it, probably to make sure she wouldn't tear it all away, then came back to her. She avoided looking directly at their heads as that wasn't exactly a pretty sight. Instead, her gaze fell on Oberon, sitting in front of her, his eyes looking at her, a neutral expression on his face. Then one of the spiders moved on her right leg and started running its two short, front limbs over her. It wasn't a nice feeling, and when the other three started doing the same it became straight up unpleasant. Her heart started beating faster and she instinctively struggled against the web, until one of them somehow pushed her skirt up and tore her pantyhose. She tried to calm herself down by taking long, deep breaths, but then the spider started running its short legs -arms?- against her exposed entrance. Which was... a bit wet?

_Why in the world am I... ?!_

It sort of tinkered around with its limbs for a short while -she knew almost nothing of spider anatomy- then it just... inserted its arms in her.

"Mghgf!"

As she was wet but just a tiny bit, it felt somewhat painful, though thankfully its limbs weren't much larger than two fingers where they were thickest. That said, there was something warm on their extremities, warm and somewhat liquid. Wait, that wasn't... sperm, right? The spider then started moving its limbs around inside of her, as if to coat her insides with its seed, running them back and forth, right and left, reaching deeper than what Ara was comfortable with. As much as she hated the thought of it, it didn't feel too bad. It was a bit painful, but the spider occasionally hit her sensitive spots, causing her breath to become quite ragged, and as she became wetter the pain slowly turned to pleasure. She kept struggling against the threads holding her down, with enough force to convince the other spiders to reinforce the web a bit more. Oberon was looking mainly at her eyes and hair gradually changing color.

The spider kept going for at least half an hour, and by the time it had finished Ara's breaths were noticeably faster than normal, her face flushed and her fists clenched as hard as she could. As her partner, if it could be called that way, moved away she looked angrily at Oberon, who apparently ignored her gaze. Then another one of the spiders moved closer and, albeith from a different angle, replaced the first one.

"Mfh! Mmghfhg!"

Due to the different position, the second spider's limbs hit her insides in a different way, and while it started moving almost exactly like the other one, the stimulation proved to be different, also due to the slightly different size of the arms. She kept uselessly trying to break free, with the only result being that the sensation of the arachnid's limbs inside of her felt stronger. Her breaths got even faster as her face turned redder, and at one point she almost let herself enjoy it. Mentally shouting at herself for it, she clenched her fists as hard as she could, to the point it almost hurt, and tried to focus on them in an attempt to ignore the stimulus. While it wasn't that effective, it helped her get throught it, and the spider eventually moved away too. The third one, however, took its place. She had sort of prepared herself for that, but her insides were, at that point, completely covered in their seed, which made her feel the movement of its arms quite a lot more than before. Combined with the fact that, for some reason, that spider seemed to be more lively than the previous ones, Ara felt herself getting closer to orgasm, her face flushed and her breath even more ragged than before.

Oberon enjoyed the sight of the last part of her hair and eyes turning white and red respectively. She felt herself tighten up against the spider's arms, which enhanced the feeling even more. Soon enough Ara's body started to tremble as the built-up pleasure spread from her entrance and lower part of her womb to the rest of her body, one wave after the other, her limbs shaking. The spider didn't care about it though and kept moving, making her lose her breath as she struggled against the web again, small jolts of pleasure running through her. Yet there was something missing in that. As Ara had a somewhat peculiar... condition, that orgasm felt incomplete. That said, the spider was still running its limbs around, pushing them agains her still-contracting insides, made more sensitive by her climax. Her breath broken and interrupted by her dulled moans, she was probably about to start crying when the spider moved away.

As Ara took a long, deep breath, she saw the last one moving in closer. She closed her eyes, her arms pulling with all the strength she could muster against the web. And then... nothing. A bit hesitantly she opened her eyes, to see that the fourth spider was gone. Relieved, she squirmed a bit as she tried to gesture to Oberon to get her out of that web.

"You're not done yet" he said as he looked at the two white fox hears which had grown and were twitching on her head.

Her eyes widened as she tried to shout something. Then, something moved behind her. She tried to look back, but the web made it quite difficult and the only thing she could see were the limbs of a spider at least twice as big as the previous ones tinkering with the web. Ara got put nearly perpendicular to the floor, then her upper half got moved forward as her arms were bound together behind her back. That way, Oberon got to see that she had also grown a long, white fox tail. She squirmed around, and then she felt something against her drenched entrance. But she could tell the spider's head was above hers, so what was that? As its member entered her, Ara realized that one had a more... human-like reproductive organ, and she started to squirm around as wildly as she could, which in turn made the spider tightly wrap four of its legs around her arms and chest. Still sensitive from her previous orgasm, Ara felt its member moving back and forth inside of her, trashing the sperm of the smaller spiders and splashing it out, on her legs. Her hears and tail were wailing around wildly, her breaths interrupted by the spider's thrusts. To make things worse -or better- the spider's member seemed to be partially covered in a sort of short fur, which acted as a brush and added another kind of stimulation.

Ara felt a second orgasm getting closer and closer, unable to do anything to resist, her mind focusing more and more on the pleasure which was once again building up inside of her. Soon enough her inner walls started contracting again, her back arching as another wave of pleasure spread through her, followed by short, sharp jolts which left her almost gasping. And once again her partner ignored her climax and kept moving, prolonging her second uncomplete orgasm. Then, the one to contract was its member as Ara felt it pouring its warm seed inside of her. It stopped moving while his sperm entered her, pushing out what was left of the one from the smaller spiders. Then it let go of her. Partially. Without pulling out, it turned around, moving itself below Ara, its fur brushing agains her insides and causing another muffled moan to escape her mouth. Now the spider's head was right in front of Ara's face, and seeing what she was having sex with so directly and up close made her feel a bit sick, a few tears gathering in her eyes. Then it wrapped its legs around her again, holding itself up with the other four as it started thrusting again. Ara closed her eyes to avoid looking at it, the feeling of its limbs against her being anything but pleasant and the sight of its head being even worse.

Completely impotent, she could do nothing but attempt to resist the pleasure, something she did with little success. That said, the spider was moving slower than before, maybe to avoid pushing its own seed out, which made it somewhat more bearable for Ara. It kept mating with her for long, ejaculating twice more and changing position each time. By the time it had finished, Ara was completely out of breath, her face as red as it could get, her tails -after her third orgasm, a second one had grown next to the first one- resting on her own legs. The spider slowly pulled out, then started wrapping Ara's entrance in a somewhat thick layer or web, to make sure his seed wouldn't spill. If anything, the thread felt comfortably cold against her hot, sweating body. And then, finally, it moved away. Only then Oberon stood up and walked to Ara, grabbed his tonfa and cut the web which was holding her, catching her with his free arm before she fell to the ground.

He thought about asking her if she could walk, but a quick glance told him she was most likely too tired for that. He rested her against a nearby wall and started carefully taking the web off from both her and her clothes, all the while ignoring her furious, albeith exhausted gaze. Once he had finished, he took her on his back and walked out.

"None of the creatues we host can impregnate you. This is rather obvious, but I thought hearing it might help you a bit"

Ara didn't even try to reply, still catching her breath. He brought her back to the room right outside the dome, carefully dropped her on a chair and unlocked the gag, taking it off.

"Do you want to take a shower? I can help you if you feel too tired"

"L-like hell..."

Oberon took a closer look at her face and noticed she had probably cried a bit. He wondered what to do, then... petted her head, on her ears. Ara barely managed to keep herself from letting her voice out as that actually felt nice, but the last thing she wanted was to... well, she wasn't sure what it is she didn't want at the moment. He put the chastity belt back on her, which made her groan. While she had no intention of saying it, none of her orgasm really got her off as there was a little detail lacking during the... well, mating. The chastity belt being there meant she wouldn't have been able deal with it herself either, which was frustrating to say the least. He then carried her back to her room and dropped her on her bed. While she could have walked on her own, Ara decided to take the chance to rest a bit.

"We have to wait a few days for the spiders's sperm to fade before you can get back to work" he said as he walked to the door, reminding her of the pleasurable-but-not warmness within her "I'll prepare dinner now"

He hadn't expected her to grow hears and tails as well, but that fact was actually useful as there was a sort of fox among the creatures hosted there. That said, he didn't felt comfortable with making her meet him that soon as he was a bit... let's say he was a rough one, quite hard to deal with. No, it was better to get her more accustomed to the other guests before taking her to him.

Meanwhile, Ara had rolled on herself and buried her face in the pillow, her entrance tormented by a tingling she couldn't scratch, her mind going back to what had happened. On one hand, the thought of enjoying what she had to do made her quite sick. On the other, she didn't know how long she could last in that aroused state with the belt on. She didn't want to tell Oberon that, to really get off, she needed a certain degree of pain as well. If things went well, the next time she could at least bite her lips hard enough. Then she started bashing her head against the pillow, hating herself for having thought about how to enjoy something like that. Slowly, with what little strength she could muster, she uselessly pushed her fingers against the chastity belt, her mind keeping itself from deciding to pay the fee and take the belt off for a short while. Her debt was already big enough as it was.

She kept scratching against the belt, her red cheeks hidden in the pillow.


	4. The Oily... Blanket?

**The Oily... Blanket?  
**

The next three days had gone by uneventfully. Oberon had apparently fixed Ara's pantyhose during one of those nights as she found it perfectly repaired one morning. That or he had bought her a new one, but since that implied he knew her size she sort of dediced to think he had just fixed it. Aside from that, pretty much nothing happened. She tried to distract herself by reading something, but after two days she grew bored of it, and spent the third one walking from one room to the other purposelessly. While her tails and hears had disappeared, the color of her eyes and hair had yet to go back to normal, and she was reminded of it every time she happened to walk in front of a mirror. In addition to that, she could still feel the spider's seed inside of her, what little of it was left at least. She would occasionally bring her hands to her caged entrance, as if to check if she could relieve herself of that tingling sensation or not. She wasn't used to that sort of frustration. On the third evening, during dinner, Oberon asked her why she didn't go outside since she looked bored.

"... what?"

"It's quite a walk from here to the closest shop, and while you currently have no money you can always take a look around. You lived in a different area of the city if I remember correctly"

That made Ara feel stupid, as for some reason she had thought the door to be locked.

"... I really can't go out looking like this though" she replied, most likely talking about the color of her hair and eyes.

Oberon thought those to not really be a problem, but decided not to say it as Ara probably talked out of personal experience. Probably.

"Do you always take this long to go back to normal?" he asked without moving his gaze away from the book he was reading. Ara was seriously considering asking him what that book was about, as the cover turned out to be white with no title when she managed to take a glance at it.

"N-no, not really..."

"Why is it lasting this much then?"

Ara blushed. Well, her cheeks had been somewhat red the whole time during those days to tell the truth, but still. She neither wanted nor could bring herself to tell him that she hadn't turned back to normal yet because she was still quite aroused, and the fact that the transformation's undoing was generally slower than its taking place didn't help.

"I-it just takes longer sometimes, that's all" she replied.

"Is the spiders's sperm still inside of you?"

Are spit half of what she was drinking and nearly choked herself on the other half, taken aback by the sudden question. She coughed a few times then caught her breath.

"What?!"

"I just want to know if you can work tomorrow"

"I..." she started saying as she placed an hand on her womb "... I think I can... ?"

"Tomorrow after lunch then"

"... sure..."

* * *

Tomorrow, after lunch.

_I feel like time flew by way too fast_ Ara thought as she stepped into the elevator with Oberon. She had yet to really turn back to normal.

They walked through the usual rooms, the only real difference being the "Six - Two" label on one of the doors. The room they stopped in was similar to the one right before the slime's dome, with the main difference being that there were a lot less vials, and they were all empty. There was also a fridge, and when she opened it she saw more vials. Those ones, however, were all full and seemed to contain... honey? No, honey wasn't blue with a few shades of green here and there. At least, for all Ara knew.

"What's this?"

"Honey"

"Honey doesn't have this color"

"It's not bee's honey"

"... alright, what am I supposed to... well, uh... with?" she asked, sort of relieved as the thought of mating with bees was somehow far and away worse than having mated with giant spiders.

"You'll see it soon enough"

Oberon handed Ara the key and turned the other way. As she unlocked the belt, she wondered if she should have stopped wearing pantyhose for those occasions. She readjusted her clothes, then held the key in her hand for a bit longer than needed before leaving it on the fridge. Having done something like that in the presence of someone else felt somehow... daring.

"I'm, uh, ready. I guess. ... no gag this time?" she asked, trying to put some sarcasm into it to hide her nervousness.

"You want to be gagged?"

"T-that's not what I meant..."

"This one would probably get upset if you remained too quiet. Also, you should put this on" Oberon replied as he showed her something.

"That makes me even more worried... what's that?"

"Do you know what a butt plug is?"

"W-what?!" she nearly shouted, her face instantly turning red.

"Unless you're already comfortable with anal, it's better for you to wear this"

"A-as if I'm comfortable with t-that!"

"Put this on then"

"Ugh..."

Ara hesitantly took the plug. It wasn't particularly large nor long, and had straps attached to the base. To top it off, it seemed to have been oiled beforehand. Oberon turned around again, and she unwillingly pulled her pantyhose down again and placed the tip against her butt. Biting her lips softly to make sure she wouldn't let out any sound, she slowly pushed it inside, maybe even too slowly. It was a... weird feeling, neither good nor bad as the size and lube made it slide in rather easily despite that being her first time. It was large enough to, well, close her up, but not enough to feel uncomfortable. Not too much, at least. Then she fastened the straps around her waist, underneat her clothes, and pulled the pantyhose back up.

"D... done..."

Oberon turned around, took the key -Ara had forgot it in her own hand- and led her inside the dome. Just like the spider's room, this one had a cubical, transparent hall acting as a sort of entrance. Thinking about it, that had to be a security measure. The slime she met on her first -well, second- day there probably wasn't worth the trouble of putting up something like that. The dome seemed to mimic the outskirt of a small forest, with a very small house too. Oberon walked up to it then proceeded into the wood. After ten or so meters, he stopped and sat down. Just walking all the way there had made Ara flustered, as every step made her feel the plug against her insides.

"It should get here soon"

"Alright..."

Ara looked around, her heart beating somewhat faster than normal. On one hand, that was the chance to get some relief after five days of frustration. On the other, the thought of having to have sex with... something really wasn't that great. ... it wasn't, right? Some minutes went by, then, as she ran her gaze on the surroundings, something fell on her shoulder. She looked and saw a drop of that so-called honey. She then took it on her fingers and brought it to her face. It was quite sticky, just like real honey, but the smell was not only completely different, it was also really strong, to the point she felt her head almost spin for a brief moment. Then, something else fell on her. A sort of... thing, with a shape and size somewhat resembling a blanket, as thin as four or five fingers.

"Ugh, gross..." Ara commented.

It was of a very light green, with two long, snail-like eyes coming out from probably what was supposed to be the head? It really didn't seem to have an head though. The creature had one side nearly translucent, while the other -the one touching Ara- was completely covered by rather short protuberances, varying in lenght and thickness. While most were as large as a finger and not much longer, a few were the size of an arm or even begger. And they were all covered in something green and slimy strongly resembling oil.

"... maybe I should have suggested you to take your clothes off. Cleaning them might take a while after this"

"I'd have kept them on anyway" she replied, almost sure of it.

The creature wasn't particularly heavy, not for her, at least. It ran its longest tentacles -because at the end of the day that's what they were- around Ara's body, latching itself on her. Its appendages had been waggling around the whole time, but as it held her tighter she started to feel them more, especially when they started to crawl around her chest, her rear and between her legs. Her cheeks grew even redder as a part of her started to get impatient. Had Oberon not been there staring, she might have even touched herself. But as she was too shy for that, she kept herself from doing so. The creature, however, seemed to be taking its sweet time, and for around twenty minutes it kept simply hugging her, his tentacles running on her in what was a rather unusual but undoubtfully effective foreplay. As Ara's breath grew more and more ragged, her eyes and hair completely changing color, the creature eventually slid a few of its slimy appendages underneath her clothes.

She thought about leaning against a tree for a moment, but since that thing was on her back that might have been a bad idea, and so she sat on her knees. She almost let out her voice when it wrapped its tentacles around her erected nipples, squeezing her breasts a bit at the same time before running its appendages over her wet entrance, occasionally making her shiver as it touched her clit. Then she nearly jumped as she felt it push against the plug.

"W-what..."

"Did you think I gave you the plug for my entertainment?" Oberon asked, having guessed what just happened.

"To tell the truth, a bit..."

For a brief moment, his eyebrows twitched, which made Ara worry a bit. Then the movement against her privates got stronger, bringing her attention back to herself.

"Mmnh..." she accidentally let her voice out.

The creature wrapped itself around her more tightly, and started pushing and pulling the plug, as if it was trying to remove it. It didn't have much strength though, and the straps prevented it from succeeding. That said, Ara felt it being moved back and forth, right and left inside her rear, making her feel a bit... funny. It didn't feel as bad as she'd have expected, though it wasn't too good either. Then the creature apparently gave up and started focusing more on her front entrance, much to her relief. No way she'd have admitted it though. Then, suddenly, it wrapped a small tentacle all around her clit and started rubbing it. Taken completely by surprise, Ara let out a loud series of moans as an unexpected orgasm ran through her, making her shake as the creature supported her weight.

As her white, fox hears quickly grew on her head, together with a tail from her lower back, she cursed herself mentally. Both for having let her voice out that much in front of someone, and for not having bitten her lips. The orgasm came too suddenly and lasted too little, and the lack of pain made it feel frustratingly unsatisfying. She took a few deep breaths to recover, then the creature wrapped what probably was his head on the back of Ara's, latching to her forehead, a few tentacles waggling around her new hears, which made her even more aroused. Then, four more appendages slid into her mouth and forced it open, letting another, somewhat tentacle insert itself inside.

_You've joking, right?!_

She tried to close her mouth, but the moment her teeth put strength against the bigger tentacle the other four pulled her jaw open. She then tried to grab it and pull it out, but the oil covering it was too slimy for her to grasp it firmly enough, and even then the creature forcibly brought her arms away. At that point she tried to push her nails against the palm of her own hands, but the oil had gotten on her skin too, making it pretty much impossible to hurt herself that way. She thought about bashing her head against something, but she quickly realized that with that thing restraining her she wouldn't have managed it. That, and it probably wouldn't have had the desired effect. She felt like crying.

The creature then decided she was wet enough -and she sure was, her juices having made even her thights moist- and slid a rather large tentacle inside of her, making her squirm. It then ran two appendages around the base of her breasts and squeezed tightly as it started thrusting back and fort inside of her. With her mouth forcibly open -albeith quite full- she couldn't even hold her voice back, and her moans escaped freely, the only reason she didn't blush more being that her skin couldn't possibly turn any redder than it already was. It started pinching on her nipples as well, and more tentacles wrapped themselves around her waist and between her legs, their movement over her clothes and against her skin making her even more aroused.

Pleasure built up both in her entrance and breasts, until it exploded into the rest of her body, causing her to tremble as she fell forward. She barely managed to land on her arms as jolts of pleasure ran through her. The creature then slowed down, she had no idea why. All she could think about was the frustration she was feeling, with yet another orgasm ruined. She looked up at Oberon, sitting a couple of meters in front of her, and tried to ask something, in vain as she couldn't speak in a comprehensible way with her mout in that condition. He simply sat there, watching. The thing on her back then decided to give her rear another try, and started fumbling with the plug again, causing it to move around inside her, though this time it felt somewhat better. Which actually wasn't a good thing as the last thing Ara wanted was another failed orgasm, and the lack of any sort of pain meant the next one would have been like that as well.

The tentacle inside her then started moving again, occasionally twisting on itself. Ara's breaths were as ragged as they could be, and the appendage inside her mouth suddenly wrapped itself around her tongue while several, small ones started to tease her clit. She started crying, hating herself for doing so in front of someone, the creature wrapping itself around Ara even more, pulling her arms a bit closer to her chest. Then, as it kept fumbling with the plug, it apparently noticed her tail. Her two tails, actually. And started wrapping itself around them too, especially around the base. The only reason she didn't purr with her hears and tails teased like that was that she was already too busy moaning. On top of that, the added stimulus on her tail brought her over the edge again, right into another frustratingly painless orgasm, pleasure once again running through her. She instinctively tried to sink her fingers into the first thing she found -the ground- as she partially arched her back, the creature wrapping itself even more around her.

The creature started focusing more on her breasts, alternating between massaging and pinching her nipples, all the while rubbing her chest. It pulled Ara back up, making her stand on her knees first and then bending her backward a bit while supporting her weight, as if to put her on display. Her own droll started to run down her jaw, then along her neck. With Oberon right there looking at everything that was happening, she felt her heart beating so fast she thought it was about to burst. He wondered if he should have intervened, she was crying after all. Had Eve not instructed him not to interrumpt those sessions unless Ara ended up in actual danger, he might have really done so. But the only way that creature could hurt her would have been by inserting too many tentacles inside her, bending her limbs too much or maybe choking her, and he was doing none of that. Which, ironically, for Ara was a problem.

The thrusting became faster and faster again as the tentacle inside her mouth started to turn on itself, rubbing against her tongue and moving it around. Some of the oil covering it slid inside her throat, and while it turned out to have a somewhat good taste it also caused her to cough several times. More thin appendages slowly crawled inside her entrance as the larger one pushed itself deeper, until Ara felt it almost against her womb. The creature started to close around her, in a way which somehow resembled a straitjacket, and as it did so its movements grew wilder. She felt it stirring up her insiders as it once again fumbled with the plug, more violently than before. As the appendages around her clit started to move wildly again, another unsatisfying orgasm ran through her, her whole body trembling, which made her feel the tentacles's movements even more, a third tail growing next to the first two. Her tears mixing with her droll along her neck, she was now completely resting on the creature, unable to hold herself up.

More appendages wrapped around her ears and tails as the creature apparently went into a frenzy, clutching itself more and more on Ara, a few tentacles latching around her neck. That's when Oberon stood up and got in front of them. He then flicked his fingers against the creature's eyes once, then twice, until they retreated almost completely into its body. When he started flicking against its head, the creature detached itself from Ara and crawled away, to the nearest tree, and somehow climbed over it, going into hiding. It left a trail of blue, sticky fluid behind itself, which is what Oberon normally collected from it, though Ara took priority. He took her in his arms and started walking out, listening to her broken breaths and her soft crying.

"Are you alright?"

"Just... just shut up..."

_Is she angry?_

He brought her all the way to the higher floors, grabbing the chastity belt as he walked past it, carried her to the bathroom and placed her in the rather large bathtub and, as it started to fill with warm water, poured soap and what seemed to be bath salts inside it.

"This should neuter most of the oil's smell" he said when Ara looked at it.

Once the tub got full enough, Oberon took off his shirt and threw it into the water. The oil had stuck to it while carrying Ara, so he had to clean that too. He took a sponge and started washing her. Taking her clothes off would have been somewhat pointless as he had to take the smell off them as well. Ara tried to push him away, especially when he nonchalantly rubbed the sponge between her legs, but she was too tired to really put up any resistance. He slid the sponge underneath her dress and washed directly her skin, glancing at her red cheeks every now and then. Then he washed her breasts as well, and there his hand stopped for a moment as he listened to her heart, beating faster than normal.

"I... can wash by myself..." she said, though quite late.

"It's better if you rest"

He then got inside the tub as well, sat next to Ara and started washing her legs, making her even more flustered. She held on the edge of the tub as he thoroughly ran the sponge all over her. She didn't know how long it took, but he eventually finished. Or so she thought. Oberon took some soap in his hands, rubbed them against each other and then placed them at the base of one of Ara's tails. She shivered as he ran them all the way to the tip, several times. Had they been dry, they would have felt quite fluffy to the touch. He then moved to the second tail and then to the third, as Ara dropped her mouth below the water to silence herself. Then Oberon placed his hands over her ears -her fox ones- and started rubbing them as well, pulling her head back up. At that point she started purring, which in turn made her blush even more.

"S-stop..."

In truth, Oberon wasn't sure he needed to wash her tails and ears as well as those were supposed to disappear. He started listening to her voice as he kept massaging her ears. At some point, however, he realized he had moved an hand under her chin and had started scratching it, as if she was some sort of cat. Though she seemed to both like and dislike it, which left him quite confused.

_I... think I lost myself a bit_ he thought, rather surprised, as he moved his hands away.

Since they were there already, he washed her hair too, then brought her out of the tub. She helped her sit on a small stool, then, as he was about to undress her to dry her up, he stopped. Ara leaned against the wall, exhausted. Oberon then held her up for a moment, and she heard the dreadful sound of something clicking around her waist.

"I have a couple of things to take care of back down. Can you dry yourself up?"

"Leave... me... alone..."

"Alright"

Right after he walked out, Ara used what little strength she had left to scratch against the chastity belt. Oberon was... surprised. Watching her work -if that could actually be called work- had been quite entertaining, sure, but washing her... there was something to that he really liked, to the point he got caught in the moment, though only briefly. What exactly, he wasn't sure. He kept wondering about it as he collected the blue honey the creature had left behind. The next day would have been an highly interesting one, though he didn't know it yet.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't what I had in mind when I first thought I wanted to write something involving a straitjacket.


	5. Intoxication

**Intoxication  
**

Ara remained there, lying against the wall, for a while, to rest a bit. Then, her face still flushed both due to the bath and her arousal, she took off her drenched clothes, put on a bathrome and walked back to her room, leaving a trail of water drops behind her. She dropped the clothes on the floor and let herself fall on the bed, then rolled around and started fondling her breasts as she bit her lips, gently pinching her nipples every now and then, but that really wasn't enough to drive herself to an orgasm. She frantically scratched against the chastity belt, then, a bit hesitantly, she moved an hand to the plug, still in place in her rear. She unfastened the straps, grabbed it and started moving it around. But she had no experience with anal, and so she didn't really know how to get herself off with that, and her efforts rewarded her with only a somewhat good feeling, together with a rather funny one and even some soft pain. She was about to start crying again, her tails weakly waggling around and her hears twitching a bit, when Oberon knocked at the door.

"Dinner is ready"

"I'm not hungry!" she shouted in response.

_She is angry._

"I'll leave it in the fridge" he replied as he walked away.

Ara spent the next hour trying to have an orgasm, but also due to how frustrated and tired she was, she just couldn't get herself there. The chastity belt didn't help in any way, and the end result was that she was even more aroused than before. She then collapsed and fell asleep.

* * *

The next day, early in the morning. Oberon was sitting in the kitchen, reading a book, when he heard footsteps. He closed the book, stood up and walked to the door, which had been left open, but before he could reach it Ara stepped in. She was still in the same state as the previous evening, with even all three of the tails still being there. Actually, while she did put her clothes on, they were quite messy, as if she got dressed in the fastest way possible, and her hair wasn't in good shape either. She wasn't wearing her coat, but in truth she had hardly used it since coming there. Her breaths were heavy, and it seemed like she had some trouble standing. He considered for a moment whether to ask her if she was feeling well or not, but on second thought that would have been a rather pointless question. If he had to describe her expression with a single word, he would have probably picked "craving". Or "altered". "Fascinating", maybe.

"Do you need som..."

Before he could finish the sentence, Ara walked -almost ran- up to him, grabbed him by the shirt and pushed him against the table. If purposefully or simply due to her momentum, he wasn't sure.

"The key!"

"That would cost you" he reminded her.

"Give me the key!" she shouted, a rather fascinating mix of emotions in both her eyes and voice.

"As you wish"

He reached for one of his pockets and brought out the key. Ara violently snatched it from his hand and frantically pushed it into the belt, unlocking it. She pretty much threw it away, the key still inside it, and ran away without even bothering to pull her pantyhose back up, her skirt barely covering her privates. Or rather, she tried. Oberon grabbed her wrists at the last moment.

"You don't look well" he said, only to see how she reacted.

"L-let me go!"

"Do you need something?" he asked.

"Let me... !"

Then apparently her legs gave out and she fell. He instinctively let go of one of her wrists to held her up.

"Just... please... ... ... ..." she said, her voice fading into an inaudible whisper as a fourth tail grew next to the previous three. Judging by her expression, the process felt quite intense.

Then, Ara moved her free hand between her legs and started masturbating, right there, as Oberon held her up.

 _... amusing..._ he thought, surprised.

She bit her lips, hard enough for them to start bleeding, and Oberon guessed it was to keep her voice down. Then again, she probably didn't have that much composure left since she was fingering herself in his arms. So why was she doing that? Deciding to take advantage of the situation, he grabbed her hand and forcibly brought it up.

"Don't!" she shouted, desperate.

"I'd like to know why you were biting your lips"

"Ugh..."

Apparently she did have some self control left. She struggled against his grasp, and while she would have normally had enough strength to put up a fight, she currently wasn't in a good enough shape to do so. After a couple of minutes at most of struggling, albeith rather intense, she gave in.

"I... I can't g-get off w... without pain!" she screamed, her cheeks as red as they could get, tears running down her face.

Oberon was... amused. Surprised. And a bit disappointed with himself, as he had probably gone a bit too far. Though it felt... nice. Oddly nice. She kept struggling against his grasp, though he was also partially helping her standing. Much to his own surprise, he breathed in her scent. A strong, sweet scent. Was that due to her fox features? Suddenly, Oberon switched position with Ara and pushed her down on the table, pinning her wrists down with his hand as he placed the other right below her chin, the difference in height making things easier for him. It was a really uncomfortable position for her, but for some reason he didn't care about that at the moment.

"O-Oberon?!"

_... what am I doing... ?_

There was something captivating in her crying face, something alluring. He wanted to see more of her expressions, to hear more of her voice. He ran his free hand down along her body, as if he was drawing a line on her, all the way to her waist, pulled her pantyhose down a bit then reached for her entrance, where he placed his fingers. He didn't push them inside, nor did he rubbed them against her. Ara desperately tried to get up, but at the same time she was trying to push herself against his fingers. He brought his face to her neck and ran his cold tongue on it, sending shivers down her spine.

"I'm... begging you... please..."

He roughly pushed her completely on the table, moved her wrists over her belly to have a better hold on them and pushed his fingers inside. She was wet, so incredibly wet, and her inner walls contracted around him as if to suck his whole hand inside. Her whole body started trembling and shaking violenlty as she bit her own lips hard, blood flowing from them, her orgasm crashing on her wave after wave as Oberon kept moving his fingers around inside of her, pulling them out only to push them back in as he used his thumb to play with her clit. Ara's muscles contracted as the pleasure took over her, her tails waving as if they'd gone crazy. Oberon then pushed a bit more of his hand inside. She nearly jumped as he started twisting it around, until she could no longer hold her voice in and let go of her lips. Her moans sounded almost like screams, her brain overwhelmed by ecstasy.

He then abruptly pulled his hand out, grabbed her and turned her upside down, with her belly lying on the table. While that was a far more comfortable position for her, that's not why he had done it. He placed an hand on her back to keep holding her down and inserted his fingers in her again, making her moan wildly, then pushed his tumb inside her rear.

"W-wai- aahh- not there! Mmnh!"

Ignoring her, he started moving all five of his fingers. He could hear her scratching against the table, though her tails were obstructing the sight. Without having had enough time to recover from her previous orgasm, Ara felt another wave of pleasure ran through her as she instinctively pushed her fingernails against her own skin with enough strenght to make herself bleed again, her back arching more and more as the feelings wreaked havoc to her mind. Oberon then stopped, grabbed her and pulled her back up. Ara's legs were far from able to hold her weight, still shaking from all the pent-up sexual frustration being finally released. That said, her hand moved down between her legs as she started fingering herself while groping her own breasts with the other, any semblance of control over herself and her voice long lost. Almost immediatly, Oberon grabbed both her hands and held them against her chest as he held her against himself. Being taller, he had her fox hears right in front of his face, and bit one of them not too gently as the other started twitching wildly.

"Ah... aaahhh..."

As he forced her to rub her hands against her breasts, Oberon took a few steps to the side, dragging Ara with her, moving a chair out of the way with his leg.

"D... don't s... don't stop..." she asked, her voice now a barely udible whisper.

Just like Oberon, Ara didn't know what had gotten into her. She didn't have much sexual experience, but she had never, ever been that lost in the ecstasy of the moment, nor has she ever been bold -or shameless- enough to start masturbating in front of someone. Was that due to having been locked inside a chastity belt without relief, or was her transformation affecting her behavior as well? She didn't know, and truth be told she didn't even care at the moment. Oberon raised one of her arms and went to lick it, exactly where she had pushed her fingernails into her own flesh. Her blood tasted salty and metallic. Which was, well, normal. Then he pushed her forward a bit, and as she turned her gaze from him to the table she was one of the corners right in front of her. Almost without hesitation she pushed her private area against it and started rubbing herself on it. A small part of her was desperately telling her to not do it in front of him, but its voice got completely drowned in the pleasure. Oberon grabbed her face and turned it to face him, contemplating her expression of pure bliss, her cheeks as red and flushed as they could possibly get, her breath ragged and heavy as she kept masturbating with the table, two of her tails coiling around him as the other two kept waving in the air. Then he pushed two fingers inside her rear, making her jump a little.

"N-not th -aahh- not there..." she said, without stopping her hips.

"As you wish" he replied as he pulled them out and took a step back, dragging Ara away from the table.

He then brought her hands up to her shoulders and ran an arm over her, holding both hers in place as he moved his free hand between her legs, his fingers just barely caressing her entrance. She looked at him, desperate.

"You're cruel..."

_... am I?_

He brought his tongue to her face and licked her tears as he slowly, so slowly took a step forward, pushing her back against the corner as he inserted two fingers in her rear again. Immediatly Ara resumed her masturbation as Oberon moved his fingers around inside her while still holding her arms in place. He matched the movement of his hand with that of her hips, then as he felt her body beginning to tremble again he pushed his teeth against one of her shoulders, left exposed by her short dress, and sank them in, a bit more than necessary. He didn't want her to hinder her own voice by having her biting her own lips, so he did it for her. Ara stopped moving as her body trembled, her throat vocalizing both her pleasure and her pain. As she kept shivering, Oberon moved his mouth away as he let go of her arms to grab her hips and move them for her against the table. She fell forward, trying to oppose the forced motion which was overloading her sense, her hands trying to push herself away. He then bent down, rested his teeth against the higher part of her back, which her clothes left uncovered, and moved them against her skin, occasionally using his tongue as well.

"S... stop... plea... " she tried to say, almost completely out of breath.

Then, Oberon noticed something. One of her tails had disappeared, only three of them left. He moved and hand to her entrance and pushed his fingers back and forth inside of her as he moved them around, then moved to her clit as he ran his other hand on her rear, drowning in the sound of her voice, in her scent and in her reactions just as much as she was drowning in the excessive pleasure. He held her back up, grabbed one of her hands, brought it between her legs and used it to play with her privates. Ara tried to beg for a pause, for a moment to rest, but couldn't utter any comprehensible words. Two more orgasms were forced on her as Oberon's grasp on her hand tightened enough to hurt her. Then he pulled her back up, brought her hand to her mouth and pushed her fingers inside, making her taste her own juyces as she desperately tried to stand up, the only thing really making her stand up being Oberon's hand inserted in her privates as it kept stimulating her. Her body trembled again, jolts of pleasure running through her flesh and veins once more, then he stopped and let her go.

Ara fell forward, leaned against the table, then fell on her knees, on the floor, before collapsing on it, her mouth gasping for air. Oberon kneeled down behind her and placed an hand on her rear. She tried to say something, but couldn't bring herself to utter anything comprehensible. He ran his fingers along her butt, then reached for the pantyhose and pulled it down even more, almost to her knees, then he grabbed her and pulled her up. He placed his mouth on her privates as he breathed in her smell, then started licking her. She was so wet he could have drunk her juices if he wanted to. With so little strength she was unable to even so much as attempt to get away, Ara was so out of breath she couldn't even moan nor scream anymore, let alone beg for mercy. That, he didn't like. So he turned her on her back to see her face, got on top of her and started fingering her. She placed her hands on his chest in what should have been an attempt at pushing him away, but her arms were so weak Oberon didn't even understand that's what she was trying to do.

At that point stimulations were giving Ara as much pain as they were granting her pleasure, and her face was perfectly reflecting that. Her sense having been pushed beyond their limits, all she could think about was what was happening to her, which only enhanced the already excessive feeling. Then, Oberon switched position with Ara and tightly held her against himself as he lied on the floor. Her flesh was hot, and against Oberon's artificial, cold skin it felt even hotter, boiling even. He placed an hand behind her head, in her hair, and pushed her down, smelling her potent scent, which got even stronger as he felt her body shaking again, a mixture of bliss and torment running through her skin, her flesh, her bones, her every fiber. Then he stopped, but Ara kept trembling for a few minutes after that, panting heavily against his chest and the base of his neck.

He rested an hand on her back and slowly ran it up and down, caressing her, as he placed the other on her head and gently petted her. After a somewhat brief silence, Ara started purring. He occasionally ran his hand from her shoulders all the way to her tails, sinking his fingers in her soft fur. There were only two left, as the third one had disappeared as well. Ara remained motionless for a while, with only her breathing and her purrs to say she was alive. Neither of them knew for how long they remained there, like that, but at some point she started to rub herself against him almost affectionately, in a way that strongly resembled a cat. They stayed on the floor for a long while, then Oberon stopped. He pushed her aside -gently this time-, stood up and quickly walked to the door. He gave a quick glance at Ara, who was looking at him with a confused expression on her face. Only one tail was left. He walked out, closing the door behind him.

Then, only then, Ara started to realize what happened. She looked at her clothes. A moisty mess, her dress slighty pulled up, her skirt raised, her pantyhose down to her knees. Her hair was just as untidy. Some of her fluids were on the table, and there were a few small ponds on the floor, not to mention Ara herself who was drenched. Her cheeks turned redder and redder, and she hid her face beneath her hands as she mentally went through all of it again, wondering how could she have lost control so completely. She weakly slapped herself a couple of times to regain her composure -or to try, at least- and got up. It actually took her a few attempts, as her legs were still weak. She looked around and found the chastity belt, then walked up to it.

"I... guess I should put this back on..."

So she said, but she remained there for a few minutes, holding it in her hands. The key was still there. Slowly, hesitantly, she caged herself again, thinking about how much it costed not to wear it to convince herself. Or maybe that was just an excuse. Then she walked to the bathroom as she needed a shower, badly. It was a long and awkward trip, her legs shaking and occasionally giving out, some of her juices still dripping from between her legs.

* * *

Oberon, on the other hand, had gone to one of the many empty rooms, and there he sat against the wall, the lights turned off. He was... confused. What in the world had gotten into him? Why didn't he just let her go? Ara would have most likely gone to her room and relieved herself. He looked at his hands. He could still smell her scent on his fingers, and he could almost still feel her skin in his grasp. Why did he treat her so roughly? He had always considered himself to be calm and rational. No, he knew he was calm and rational. What was it that made him go into such an unrational frenzy? But what really puzzled him was that that had been the most fun he had had in his long, long life.

 _... why am I even sitting here_ he thought as he got up and headed to the elevator. He wanted to check on the creatures, if only to bring himself to think about things he could understand.

* * *

Oberon and Ara didn't met again until dinner. Ara had skipped breakfast and made lunch by herself. She walked into the kitchen and found him there, cooking. Everything had been cleaned. He had also changed his clothes, but as all the ones he had looked exactly the same she couldn't tell it. As for her, her hears and the last of her tails had disappeared, and her hair and eyes had gone back to their normal color as well. She was also wearing her coat.

"Oh, hi, no, I mean, well, uh..." Ara tried to say something, stumbling on her own words, her cheeks blushing as she recalled the events of that morning.

He turned around, walked in front of her and... bowed.

"... eh?"

"I am sorry" he said "I do not know why, but I lost control. For that, I apologize"

Maybe, had Eve not expressly told him -and Ophelia and Ferdinand- that she didn't want her servants to show too much respect to someone other than her, he might have gotten on his knees while apologizing. Maybe.

"W-well... " Ara said, taken completely aback "I... that was m-my fault too... really... actually, here" she replied as she handed him the key to the belt.

Oberon waited a brief moment, then raised his head and took the key.

"It will not happen again" he saying, though that sentence was meant more for himself.

"D-don't worry too much... I mean, I... that wasn't so bad... I guess... ?" she said, blushing. She had no idea where those words would have taken both of them.

He went back to preparing her dinner.

"You can take tomorrow off. The day after you will get back to work"

"... sure" she replied as she started setting the table.

After a short while she started eating as Oberon sat in front of her, reading what seemed to be still the same, coverless, titleless book. It was almost like usual. It almost convinced them that what happened was nothing but an isolated incident, but deep down they knew -or at least suspected- that things wouldn't have simply gone back to normal. Or maybe theirs wasn't a conviction, but rather, an hope.


	6. ... her Hand Reached for It

**... her Hand Reached for It  
**

Ara found breakfast already prepared when she walked into the kitchen the next morning. As for Oberon, maybe he was doing something in the lower floors. She ate then decided to go out for a walk. Not like she had anything to do inside anyway. She had no scars left from her... with Oberon, as she healed quite quickly due to having had Eun inside of her for that long. That, and she hadn't really gotten any serious mark in the first place. She probably wouldn't have gone out had she had some visible sign on her skin.

Just like she had seen the day she had arrived, all the nearby buildings were empty. Though, on a closer look, they seemed to have been inhabitated until relatively not too long ago. She kept walking, and eventually reached the populated -or rather, normal- area of the city. That was an area in which she had pretty much never been, and at some point she nearly got lost while wandering around. There were quite a few shops, but since she had no money she didn't really feel like walking inside any of them. Then, by chance, she walked in front of an adult store. She blushed, not really because of the store itself but because her mind went back to the previous morning. She grabbed her cowlick and pulled it down, to see that the point had turned white.

"Oh, darn..."

At that point she went back to the menagerie, though it was a little early for lunch. Which is why she was quite surprised to find Oberon already cooking.

"Oh, uh, hi" she said.

"Good morning. Though I guess it's a bit late for that. Did you go out?"

"Yes, I took a look around. Why are all the buildings around here empty?"

"There is a... fair of sort taking place here every six months for two weeks. Weird people gather to sell, buy and exchange weird things, have weird fun with weird hobbies, and then leave. Most of the buildings either belong to or are rented to them, and are left unused for the rest of the year"

"... why have I never heard of this? I mean, the city isn't that big"

"It actually is. Anyway, you can't get into the fair without being invited by one of the regulars"

"How come the buildings being empty because haunted wouldn't have made me as worried?"

"Maybe because ghosts can be dealt with by specialists"

He then served her lunch, though Ara averted her gaze to avoid looking at his face, which is why she didn't notice when he briefly ran his gaze on her, as if to see if there was any sign of what happened on her skin. He noticed her cowlick was mostly white, but decided not to say anything. The rest of the day went by boringly and uneventfully.

* * *

The next morning, as usual, she had breakfast while Oberon red apparently still the same book. At some point -which is to say, once she was done eating- she decided to ask him what he was reading, but he spoke first.

"There is something you should put on" he said as he looked at her coat. She had started keeping it on all the time.

"Oh, sure. I guess? What?"

"This" he replied as he took something from a drawer and put it on the table.

Silence. A good three minutes of it.

"... this is... a b... butt plug?" she asked as her face turned red.

"You will have to engage in anal intercourse too rather soon, and since you have pretty much never used it for that it's better for you to keep this on for a while" he said.

"... tell me you're joking"

"I could, but it would be a lie"

"..."

Hesitantly, Ara moved her hand to take the plug.

"... wait, this isnìt the same I us- the same you gave me last time"

"No, this one is bigger. It's to avoid future shocks"

She touched the choker around her neck to remind herself why she was there, or at least that's what she thought.

"W... whatever, fine"

She took it and walked to her room, closed the door and sat on the bed, the plug next to her legs. She took a deep breath, then another, then stood up, rolled up her skirt a bit and pulled her pantyhose down, only as much as needed, then took the plug. She stared at it for a short while, which served to both help her get mentally ready and to let her cheeks turn even redder. She placed it against her rear, and... waited. After around a minute or so, she brought herself to pushing it in, the tip at least. And slowly. Unlike the first one, that plug hadn't been oiled, but maybe due to her butt having been... stimulated rather recently, it still slid in somewhat easily. That said, she took around five minutes or so to push it all the way in, occasionally letting out her voice. She then fastened the straps, and looked at herself in the mirror.

The plug was... definitively bigger. Unlike the other one, which only filled her up, this one pushed a bit against her walls, not much but still enough to make her way too conscious of it. That, and it reached a bit deeper. Still, it felt a bit... she refused to think it felt somewhat nice, but that's exactly how it was. Sure, it was also a bit... bothersome, but still it was better than the first time. Then she noticed some red in her eyes, as well as a few strands of white hair here and there, and immediatly averted her gaze, because even if she could tell herself she wasn't really liking it, those changes were far too painfully honest. Then again, maybe that was simply a physiological reaction.

Ara spent the rest of the morning trying to distract herself from the plug, to no avail as she had nothing to do inside there and didn't want to go out with that thing inside her, and ended up walking around doing nothing the whole time, without realising that doing so only made her focus on the plug more. Lunch came and went by, and then she found herself in the usual antechamber of one of the domes, the third room of the fourth floor. That one was unusually empty though. Oberon, who had avoided saying anything about her eyes or hair, gave Ara the key and turned around as she unlocked the belt. She was getting somewhat used to that.

"You can take the plug off if you want"

"I don't think I'm already prepared for that..."

"That's not what I meant"

"Oh"

She toyed with her cowlick for a short while, then unfastened the straps and slowly pulled it out, biting her lips to be sure not to let her voice out. She really didn't feel like going through whatever was awaiting with a plug inserted in her rear as well. As it slowly slid out, she felt her rear a bit stretched. Trying not to think about that, she left it on the chair -the only piece of furniture in the room, together with a small drawer- and gave the key back to Oberon.

"I'm... ready, I think"

"Almost" he replied as he walked to the drawer and pulled out something. A sort of gag, and something else which he put in his pocket, but from where she was standing she couldn't tell what the second thing was.

"... again... ?" Ara asked as she slowly took a step back.

"It's just to be safe. This one secerns fluids occasionally, and they're nocive if ingested through the mouth" he said as he showed her the gag, which looked like a filter grid "This only allows fluids to go one way, it's better if you wear it. Also, it would be for the better to not have this one insert anything in your mouth"

It sounded reasonable. Sadly. Well, the last part actuall sounded a bit weird given she had already had... appendages shoved in her mouth.

"A-alright, then..."

Not really happy about it, Ara reluctantly put it on after Oberon showed her which side she had to keep in her mouth. Just as she had feared, she couldn't bite down on her lips with that thing on. Good thing she still had her nails. The gag didn't hinder respiration at all, thankfully. He then led her inside the dome. After having crossed the usual transparent cube, they stepped into what seemed to be a thick forest. The temperature was rather high, though not enough to be really bothersome. They headed in, and stopped once they reached a small glade. Well, glade was probably an overstatement as it wasn't that large, but still. Oberon, as usual, sat down, while Ara waited, nervous. No, she hadn't gotten used to it. Yet?

Then, she heard something, the rustling of the bushes. She turned around and saw the head of a sort of bug looking at her. It slowly stepped into the glade, and Ara instinctively stepped back as it moved forward. Its size was comparable to that of an horse, and its body was divided into three parts. Together with the fact it had six legs, that most likely really was a giant insect. Its upper half seemed to be covered by an hard shell, while the lower half looked relatively soft. Its legs each ended with something vaguely resembling a three-toed foot, with each toe being as buglike as it could get. Oddly enough, it had what appeared to be a small set of nearly white feathers around the higher half of its thorax. A rather strong contrast to its otherwise black body. Its abdomen made up almost half of the creature's size. As for the head, it had two compound eyes with a shape somewhat resembling a tribal tatoo. The mouth was rather small, not much larger than that of an human. The two mandibles weren't particularly large either. It had a sort of... nose? A trunk longer than Ara's arm which, if not for the shell covering it, would have been rather similar to that of an elephant, though that one went from being thicker than an arm at its base to being almost as thin as a finger at its tip.

Ara muttered some incomprehensible sounds, as if she had forgotten about the gag. Oberon noticed her hair had already turned a bit white here and there, but rather than commenting about it he placed an hand on her back and pushed her forward a bit, since she had walked all the way to the other end of the glade, and she hesitantly took a few steps toward the bug, which had fixed all of its eyes on her. It raised its nose -was that a nose?- and moved it in front of Ara. As it seemed to be smelling her, it seemed safe to say that was a nose. It then started moving forward, making her step back to avoid direct contact until she ended up with her back against a tree. Oberon had moved to the side and was watching from there. She was unsure what to do, and remained still. Then, the base of its trunk started to swell up as it moved the tip in front of Ara's belly. The swell then quickly moved down the nose, and something splashed against her. It was... mucus. Or at least it seemed to be mucus.

 _Ugh... this is even worse than last time..._ she thought as she touched the green, cold substance which had covered her belly with a finger, her face slightly taking the same color as that thing felt slightly disgusting to the touch.

Then, suddenly, the bug raised its two front legs and pushed its feet against her wrists, pinning them to the three behind her before splashing her hands with the same mucus. Ara tried to move her arms, but given the bug was also resting part of its weight on those legs she couldn't really so much as make it budge. It remained there like that for a short while, then moved its legs back down. Ara quickly realized the mucus had hardened in that short while, pinning her hands against the tree. But what was really troublesome was that all of her fingers had gotten completely caught inside it and were now blocked.

 _You're kidding me!_ she mentally shouted -something did come out from her mouth as well, and Oberon guessed what that was supposed to mean- as she tried to come up with a way to somehow hurt herself. Because as much as she didn't want nor liked mating with those... creatures, she didn't want to go through that frustration again. Granted, she could simply get the key, but then again, her debt...

Her mind was brought back to the there and then by the bug, who had moved its nose against the gag and tried to push its trunk inside her mouth, quite roughly at that. As it realized it couldn't get it inside her mouth, he moved its nose down her neck and then slid it under her dress, sniffing her. Then, with a single movement, it ripped her upper clothes apart before doing the same to her bra. Ara blushed as the bug got closer to her, enough to take her exposed nipple in its mouth. Which is exactly what it did. Ara's body twitched slightly as it started sucking on it, and she could feel tiny teeth poking against it. Then, the bug wrapped part of its nose against her other breast and placed her free nipple in its nose. Which apparently wasn't a nose as not only it started sucking on it the same way its mouth did, she could also feel the same teeth poking against her.

She averted her gaze and tried to focus on something else, thinking she could take that much. Then, from the lower half of the bug's thorax came two more legs which it had kept folded on themselves. Though those looked more like arms as they ended with something vaguely resembling an hand. He placed them on her shoulders, underneath her coat, and started secreting something from what could be called its palms, a warm fluid of sort. Ara worried as her skin seemed to absorb it rather quickly, then the bug moved its nose -or second mouth, or whatever it was- to her lower half and pushed it between her legs, then bit off the pantyhose and simply slid inside her, almost making her jump. She wasn't wet, but thankfully the tip was relatively small and it didn't cause her too much pain. That wasn't the moment she needed it at anyway.

That said, Ara felt her body heating up quickly. And not the same way it did with the slime. Her face became flushed as her breaths grew quicker as a tingling feeling grew in her privates. The bug then moved back a bit, grabbed her waist and pulled her up, all without taking its nose out of her, and placed its other mouth slighty above her entrance, which is to say, right on her clit, and started sucking. Taken by surprise, Ara felt a sudden-and oddly powerful- wave of pleasure irradiating through her as her walls contracted against the creature's elongated second mouth, causing it to move around, stimulating her even more. Ara felt her orgasm quickly building up, maybe even too quickly, as she desperately tried to break the hardened mucus, which proved to be sturdy enough to resist. Her breathing got quicker as her muscles tensed up, and so came her first climax, which without pain brought her more frustration than satisfaction. Her limbs shook slighty as she basked in the lingering pleasure, her cheeks red, her eyes now dyed the same color, her first tail swinging lazily as her white hears stretched themselves.

The bug had stopped briefly, maybe expecting her to somehow break free due to her shaking, but upon seeing her calming down he went back to action. Ara gasped as the suction on her clith started again, while the other mouth of the bug slowly crawled deeped inside her. A small part of the insect's carapace opened, and two more limbs extended from below it and reached for Ara's exposed breasts as they split into six and fully enveloped them. The inner side of those two new limbs had to be covered with countless minuscule appendages as she felt her chest being fondled quite energetically despite the two arms being still. Then they started sucking on her nipples as well, strongly but not violently, quite to her disappointment. She tried to breath normally, but the insect's nose digging deeper and deeper inside of her made it exceptionally hard. As if that wasn't enough, the two appendages enveloping her breasts started releasing some sort of fluid which, once again, got quickly absorbed by her skin.

Just as that happened, Ara's sensitivity was heightened. She felt her skin heating up as suddenly all the stimulation appeared to be twice as strong, if not even more. The sudden change made her moan loudly as her tail went wild, her insides contracting violently against the foreign object making its way inside her. The trunk then suddenly sped up and reached the entrance of her womb, where it stopped abruptly. Ara took a breath of relief -or rather, she tried as her now overly sensitive breasts were still being constatly stimulated- but then she saw the base of the second mouth swelling up. Then came panic. Was it going to spray that mucus inside of her as well? That'd have killed her. She moved her gaze to the glade, desperately looking for Oberon as she frantically pushed against her restraints. He was standing behind the insect, and apparently was looking at it.

The swelling then started moving down the trunk, slowly. Cries mixed in with her moans as tears started to fall down her face, along the droll which had been coming out from he forcibly open mouth for quite a while. Ara squirmed with all the strength she had, but the only result of that was stimulating herself even more as she effectively rubbed herself against the insect, her breaths getting more and more ragged. She almost shouted as the swelling reached her entrance. The elongated mouth there was already large enough to completely fill her up, but as the mucus went through that part of the trunk she felt herself being pushed open even more, her insides contracting against the nose, with the only result of stimulating her even more.

The swelling kept slowly moving along the mouth and inside her. As she kept shouting and struggling, she noticed Oberon walking a bit closer to her. He looked at her for a brief moments, then did... well, nothing.

"Don't worry" he said as he remained there, still.

Had her mouth been free, Ara would have probably cursed him. But since it wasn't, all she could do was scream incomprehensibly. She felt her muscles beginning to tense up as the swelling in the insect's overly long mouth reached the tip. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the wrong thing. The bug released the mucus almost in her deepest part, but that didn't actually feel like mucus. Unlike it, in fact, it was warm. Hot, almost. Ara squealed, the only reason she didn't squirm around being that her muscles had tensed up as waves of pleasure started to spread through her body. She felt the tip of the mouth moving in circles as the bug started slowly pulling it out, completely smearing the hot fluid on her inner walls. As if the stimulation wasn't already strong enough, the two appendages wrapped around her breasts started to drip the same fluid as before, heightening her sensitivity even more.

The sudden burst of pleasure completely shocked her as she was left gaping, but the bug ignored it and kept pulling its second mouth out while twisting its tip around. For some reason, it also started to suck on her clit with more force. All of that caused her orgasm to continue, turning her mind blank as sheer pleasure overrode most of her thoughts. Jolts of pleasure would run through her body, quickly followed by a wave which caused her limbs to tremble, and the process kept repeating itself while Ara was -almost unconsciously- still trying to free her hands, only to dig her nails in her own flesh at that point. It took the insect almost five full minutes to fully remove his mouth from her and move back sligthy, momentarily interrupting all kind of stimulation.

She breathed in as much air as she could, as the dragged-out orgasm had left her lungs nearly empty. Her body was shaking slightly, and she could feel the warm substance completely covering her insides. It wasn't mucus, that was for sure. It didn't even have the same color. Her tails -now two- were wagging, and the tears in her eyes made her sight a bit blurred. That said, she had a strong, tingling feeling between her legs. Unable to speak, she tried do think about something -anything- other than what was happening, but the only things her mind managed to think about were the other... sessions she had had during those days. Needless to say, that didn't help at all.

Then, something casted a shadow on her. She looked up to see the giant bug resting its two front legs against the tree and, using them as support, raising itself up a bit as it got closer to Ara as it moved two limbs to the mucus gluing her hands to the tree. It scrapped it off the bark, without actually breaking it. Suddenly without support, Ara fell forward against its torax. The bug then stepped back and pulled her away from the tree, to the middle of the glade. She tried to get up, but as her legs were still weak from the dragged-out orgasm she failed to do so in time, and the bug spitted more mucus on her legs, roughly between her knees and ankles. Ara then tried to at least get on her knees, but the insect moved on top of her, leaving her with not enough room for that. And then she felt something poking against her rear, which due to her current position was raised up.

As pointless as that was since she coulnd't break the quickly hardening mucus, she still tried to get away. But the bug grabbed her with two limbs to hold her in place as the two arms of sorts he had previously rested on her chest started moving their appendages on her, looking for her breasts. As they wrapped themselves around her chest again, the bug smeared more mucus on her wrists again, to lock them to the ground, and held her arms down by placing its legs on them. Granted, it didn't rest much of its weight on them, or it would have probably broken her bones. After a brief waiting, Ara felt something poking against her from behind again, but from that position she couldn't see what it was. She got an idea when she felt it penetrating her, with a movement so slow it would have been closer to foreplay than actual intercourse, as far as intensity of the stimulus was. But due to her sensitivy being several times higher than normal, even the almost excruciatingly slow motion of the bug's member felt intense, almost too much.

The penetration got quicker as the insect moved deeper inside of her, and she could feel the fluid previously smeared on her inner walls being dragged along, giving her even more pleasure. It kept digging into her, deeper and deeper, until it reached the same point at which the trunk had stopped, and did the same. Then it pulled halfway back, mixing up the fluid with a new, even warmed substance which started coming out from its member, not from the tip alone but rather from half of its whole length. It then pushed itself back in completely, then out again, then in, and kept repeating the same motion over and over. Ara arched her back as much as possible in those conditions when another orgasm assaulted her, moans freely escaping her mouth, tears falling from her face to the ground. Ignoring her now two tails hitting against its lower half as they wildly squirmed around, the bug kept going. Without even realizing it, Ara started moving her hips to match its movements.

Its member kept emitting the insect's almost hot seed for the whole act, and it eventually started overflowing from her, the excessive amount also causing Ara a bit of nausea. Then, just as it had started, the bug stopped moving. She realized it only after a short while, which also caused her to notice she was shaking her hips. Abruptly stopping, she cursed herself for that. The giant insect then pulled itself out and, just, walked away. Leaving her like that. She couldn't get any real satisfaction from that anyway as the bug avoided hurting her, but it ending abruptly like that only made things even worse, the tingling between her legs as intense as her frustration.

Then her gaze fell on Oberon. He was looking at the bug, then, once it had left the small glade, he walked to her, took a small vial out from a pocket, kneeled down next to her and started pouring its content on the mucus on her legs. She heard an issing, as if he had poured acid on it, and in a short while she felt the restrains disappearing. He dropped what was left of it on her wrists and, once it had melted the mucus there as well, removed the gag. For a brief moment he remained still, looking at her, exposed and defenseless. He almost immediatly drove those thoughts away and took her in his arms. She moaned when he lifted her, her skin still overly sensitive due whatever it was that the bug had smeared on her. Apparently ignoring it, he started walking out.

"T... these too... " she asked shily, her face as red as it could get, as she raised her still encased hands to show them to Oberon. With them like that she couldn't really touch herself. Then again, she wasn't sure she'd have done it in front of him. Though she had already done so once.

"The vial I took is empty, the others are still in the antechamber"

Ara didn't reply, instead she tried to keep her three tails in place, as she didn't want them to hit against him in their waggling. It'd have been embarassing. Once they walked into the almost empty room, he left her next to the chair.

"Can you stand?"

"A... almost..." she replied, her breath still ragged, as she almost fell on the chair, using it as support.

He took another vial, opened it and smeared the content on his hands, as if it was a sort of soap, then ran them on her, where the mucus was, to completely remove it. Ara somehow managed to hold her voice in, but her legs gave out and she fell on the chair, her back facing the wrong direction. He opened a third vial and used it to free her hands as well, but she simply held on to the chair. In a few seconds she regretted doing so as she heard the belt clicking in place around her waist, its familiar coldness against her hot skin. She refrained from groaning.

"Can't I... wait a bit before putting it b... back on?" she asked.

"It would cost you as we're past your work hours" he replied.

Ara fell silent. He helped her to get back to her room. Her coat couldn't really be closed as it had neither buttons not zipper, and so she tried to cover herself up with her tails. Quite a charming sight. He laid her down on the bed and looked at her for a bit longer than necessary.

"Dinner will be ready soon" he said then as he walked out.

Upon hearing the door closing, Ara raised her back and sat on the edge of the bed. Her gaze fell on the belt. She could see some of that bug's seed dripping out from underneath it. Resisting the urge to uselessly scratch against it, she wondered if things would have gone the same way as before. She told herself to not fall victim of her lust again. Then her gaze fell on the plug, which Oberon apparently had left in her room before leaving. She immediatly looked away, but after a relatively long hesitation...


	7. For Once, Try to Lead

**For Once, Try to Lead**

She took the plug and looked at it, briefly averting her gaze every few seconds, her tails waving nervously behind her. It was a bit thicker than her thumb, and almost twice as long as her fingers. She then noticed there was also a small bottle on the table, which she grabbed. Apparently that was lotion. After a brief but intense brainstorm, she took a deep breath and put both back on the table. Oberon was making dinner, which meant he would have came back to call her soon, and the mere thought of being walked on while doing... well, that, was far too embarassing to bear. She walked up to her wardrobe, thinking about getting something not torn apart on. She had a spare or two of almost all of her clothes, so those she was wearing being ripped wasn't too bad in a certain way. She stopped midway though, and smelled herself. On second thought, it was probably better to have either a shower or a bath before putting something else on. It's not that she stunk, but the odor coming from her was quite strong. She looked at herself, then took a few plain brooches from a drawer and used them to close her coat. It wasn't perfect, but at least it covered her otherwise exposed breasts. Then she walked to the bathroom to wash at least her face. On her way back to her room she met Oberon, in the hallway.

"Dinner is ready" he said, simply.

"O... ok" she replied as she brought an hand to her coat, as if to make sure the brooches were still in place.

The meal went by silently, almost awkwardly so.

"It should be gone within twenty hours" he said as she got up.

"I-I see" she replied, her mind briefly focusing on the still slightly warm substance inside her as her hears twitched.

Ara went straight to the bathroom, took everything off and walked into the shower, only the belt and the choker covering her. She took her sweet time washing herself, though her fur getting soaked was somewhat uncomfortable, and relaxing like that helped her to calm down. By the time she had gotten out and dried herself up the sun had already set. She went back to her room still wearing her bathrobe, left the torn clothes on a chair and took out a bra. She took the robe off, put the underwear on and then her gaze fell back to the plug. She looked at it for a short while, her tails swinging right and left near the floor. Then she went to sleep. Twenty hours meant she wouldn't have worked the next day, but she could deal with that. At least, she wanted to think so. Then she realized a part of her was looking forward to that, and she buried her head in the pillow. The tingling between her legs was still there, but at least it had calmed down a bit. Yes, she could deal with that much. She kept repeating it to herself until she fell asleep.

* * *

Ara woke up late the next day. She sleepily got up and looked for her clothes, but they weren't on the chair. She almost crawled to the bathroom to wash herself and really wake up, then went back to her room. She looked around the room for a brief moment before remembering that those clothes weren't really usable, and took out some of her spares from the wardrobe, got dressed then headed downstairs, looking exactly the same as the previous morning, her now single tail waving slightly behind her.

She found Oberon sitting in the kitchen, but he wasn't cooking. He was sewing her clothes.

"Good morning. Though maybe it's a bit too late for that" he greeted her without averting his gaze from his hands.

"'morning. ... you can sew?"

"I've had to fix mistress's clothes on a few occasions"

"I see..."

Then, even though it was a bit early, Ara started making lunch. She did skip breakfast after all. Oberon occasionally glanced at her cooking, and wondered how she could eat whatever it was that she was preparing without getting sick afterwards, as it really didn't seem that edible.

"... can you teach me how to cook? I mean, not now, one of these days maybe?" she asked later. Which is to say, after having taken a bite of her lunch.

He looked at her for a short moment before answering.

"Yes"

Then he took something from his pocket and handed it to her. A small envelope.

"What's this?"

"Your pay"

"... I get paid?" she asked back, quite dumbfounded, as she opened it. She was there to pay off a debt after all.

"You seemed bored" he replied "I thought that giving you some money would've been better than buying you something you might not even like"

... wait, was that really her pay or was it a gift from Oberon?

"Well, uh... thanks?"

He then went back to sewing. Still confused, Ara walked out. The envelope had around two hundred fifty ed inside. On one hand, it wasn't that much. On the other, she could definitively buy something to kill time with with them. That said... what could she actually buy? She thought about a chessboard -she had left the one she already had at home, maybe simply because she had forgotten to pack it- but who then, who could she play with? She used to have matches with Eun, and after she left Ara started occasionally going to a small park where people would sometime play chess, but from the menagerie it would take at least two hours of walking to get there, easily more. There was Oberon, but... for some reason she wanted to avoid that.

She took a look out of a window. It looked like it was about to rain. She started walking to the door, but then remembered she had her hears and tail out. She stopped dead in her tracks, as she couldn't really go out like that. And so she ended up spending the whole day doing nothing, unless sighing counted as doing something. Dinner went by uneventfully, and nothing happened until Ara went back to her room that evening. She took the plug, blushing slightly as she opened the bottle of lotion and poured some on it. If she really had to do anal at some point, forgetting it on the table would have been a bad idea. And so, as much as she didn't really like the thought, she pulled her pantyhose down just as much as necessary and slowly, very slowly pushed the oiled plug inside her rear, so slowly she actually had no problems holding in her voice. She fastened the straps, then took off her clothes and went to sleep.

It actually took her an hour before falling asleep though, as the feeling in her rear also strengthened the tingling between her legs.

* * *

The next day. Time flew by surprisingly quickly, and Ara found herself in the elevator with Oberon a bit sooner than usual. Unlike the other times, he had his two bladed tonfas hosted on his right hip. Ara's tail was waving behind her nervously, as usual, though the coat partially covered it. She had kept the butt plug on -in?- for most of the morning, but left it in the bathroom before lunch.

"You never looked me in the eyes after that morning" Oberon said completely out of the blue.

Ara didn't turn around, but her cheeks quickly turned red.

"I... well, uh... that... I mean, I... you..." she said as she started playing with her cowlick, her tail moving left and right.

"... guess I shouldn't have mentioned it"

Then silence, only awkward silence. A really long one too, as they apparently went to one of the deepest floors. Or maybe it was just her impression and they didn't really stay in the elevator for that much time. Ara kept looking alternatively at her feet and at Oberon's while walking behind him, without even looking at the numbers on the door. She was already busy keeping her mind away from that specific morning. She could feel the tingling between her legs growing more intense again, her hears starting to twitch slightly. Then she almost bumped into his back when he stopped. Only then she looked up. The usual antechamber, though this time there was a large... something, vaguely resembling an oven and big enough to fit a person in fetal position inside. It was empty though, aside from a bed made of soft-looking cloths covering its bottom, and she couldn't really tell what was supposed to go inside there. Next to it was... a lightning rod, a pile of several batteries and enough cables to link a dozen or so of them to it, though they were all covered in dust. A lot of dust, as if nobody touched them for at least a few weeks. The usual chair and small drawer were there as well..

"So, here we are..." Ara said, mainly to herself, as she wondered why there was a lightning rod that deep underground. Well, the domes seemed to mimic the outside weather, so maybe... no, there weren't any in the other antechambers, so there had to be a different reason. The batteries sort of gave her an idea though.

She then noticed Oberon had his hand open in front of her, with the key on his palm. She took it and he turned to the drawer while she took the belt off. When he turned back to her, once she was done, he had a quite long rope in his hand. Ara gave him an inquisitive, slightly worried look.

"W-what's that for?"

"To keep you safe. You'll see soon enough how" he said as he took back the key.

"... sure..."

"I forgot to ask" he said as he stopped on his tracks while walking to the door "You don't have a pacemaker or anything like that right?" he asked, already knowing the answer. He just wanted to see how she'd react to that.

"N-no, I don't... now you're scaring me..."

"Sorry" he replied as he went to the door.

Ara followed him, more worried and with more hesitation than usual, and was surprised not to find the typical cubical room, which was there replaced by a grid around the same size which somewhat resembled an aviary, with a small roof covering it. Actually, the whole dome looked really different from the others. For starters, it looked like it had rained recently. Second, the place resembled a savanna, which actually made the supposed rain seem even weirder. Then she noticed there were a few, tall rocky pinnacles here and there, something one would expect in some kind of deserts, and on closer look the vegetation seemed to be a bit too flourished to really call that a savanna. Not that she had ever really been in one though, so maybe she was actually wrong about that.

"This room is temporarily programmed to have around ten hours of rain every day" Oberon said as they walked.

"That's a lot of water..."

She kept looking around as she followed him and saw an hole, or more probably a small cave in one of the pinnacles. They reached an area with rocky grounds, with several rocks lying around and a single pillar made of stone, almost as large as a person and around four times higher than one. Oberon ran the rope around it two or three times, making as many knots, then pulled it to make sure he had tied it firmly enough. He then turned to Ara and gestured her to come closer.

"Raise your arms"

"You're not gonna... ?"

Oberon remained silent and looked at her. She was still not looking him in the eyes, and to his own surprise he found that annoying.

"Raise them" he repeated. They both noticed something a little different in his usually neutral tone, a vague tone of authority, but neither of them said anything about it, albeith for different reasons.

Ara did as she had been told, and Oberon ran the other end of the rope around her waist, then around her chest, both above and below her breasts, up and down, creating a sort of net around her thorax. Lastly he knotted it, effectively securing her to the pillar. And, by extension, to the ground. That said, there were at least five meters of rope between her and the column. She hadn't realized the rope was that long.

"... alright, what is this for?" Ara asked.

The rope was rather tight and she could feel it pressing against her, with only her dress between it and her skin. He had run the rope underneath her coat, so it was actually directly against her skin on her shoulders and above her breasts as her dress didn't cover those areas. She wasn't sure she disliked it.

"To make sure it doesn't take you away"

"Eh?"

Then she heard something. She turned around to see a winged creature landing a few meters away from them. It wasn't too large, being a bit taller than Oberon, though its posture was the main reason it appeared that short -relatively- as it heavily hunched forward, almost in a four-legged position, actually resting part of its weight on one hand as well. It was more long than tall. Its feathered wings were attached to its long, muscular arms, and its legs, articulated like the hind ones of a feline, looked almost oddly robust for a creature who could fly. Its feet were similar to those of a bird, though its black talons were a bit too large even for something of that size. The equally dark claws of its six-fingered hands, on the contrary, looked a tad too small. Actually, the thumb and the last finger of each hand had no claw at all. Its tail seemed to be around as long as the rest of its elongated, somewhat serpentine body -though its chest and abdomen were relatively bulky-, and considering that its neck was longer than Ara's arms that was quite a long tail. It had four, dark blue eyes and a large, dark grey beak, somewhat curved, as well as two rows of sharp teeth. Its chest and abdomen were completely covered in dark blue feathers, which also formed a sort of wide but thin crest along its whole spine. There were a few more feathers on its limbs, and every other part of its body was covered in dark scales.

"It... looks a bit out of place here, if you ask me..." Ara commented.

"It actually is. It arrived two days earlier than you did, the dome it was supposed to be hosted in had a small malfunction and because of that it couldn't be prepared in time. I brought it here as among the aviable rooms it was the most suited, but in a couple of days it should be moved to its proper environment"

"Oh, I see..."

"Due to that, it's somewhat nervous so be careful" he said as he leaned against the pillar.

_Couldn't you wait after you moved him to the right room then?_ she thought.

Ara's gaze fell on Oberon's side, and she looked at his weapons. The fact that he had brought them with him was both reassuring and worrying. The creature, which overall resembled both a raven and a lizard, slowly moved forward, towards Ara. She held her tail in place and forced herself not to step back. As it got close enough it started smelling her, moving its head up and down right in front of her. Ara was nervous, and a bit scared. Then, it opened its beak and licked her. Two long, wide tongues ran over her chest and face, though -thankfully- they hardly left any droll on her. The creature then started walking around her as it kept smelling her, occasionally running its two tongues on her. It kept doing so for a few minutes, then it ran its gaze on the rope which anchored her to the ground. It took it in its beak and bited it, though it didn't seem to be putting much strength into it. Then it bit again, this time seriously, two or three times, and each time Ara heard a somewhat metallic sound, and when the ravenlike creature dropped it, resigned, she could see something shining thought the holes its teeth had torn into it.

Then it pushed its beak against her tail and ran it along her fur, all the while smelling it, before walking in front of her again. It then took a few short steps back and stood straight up, greatly increasing its height as it spread its wings, casting a large shadow over her. It was quite... intimidating.

"It's a sort of courtship" Oberon said, his voice as neutral as it could get.

"You mean-" Ara said as she started turning around, but stopped immediatly as the creature emitted a low, somewhat menacing sound which vaguely resembled the caw of a raven while being more of a growl "You mean I'm supposed to... what?"

"Keep your eyes on its and take a step forward"

Ara swallowed her breath, nervous. She was sweating, and due to the fresh air that made her feel somewhat cold. Hesitantly, she moved closer to the creature, just a bit. The serpentine raven emitted another sound as it went back to its usual posture.

"Touch his head" he instructed her, and Ara did so, slowly. Its scales were warmed than she had expected.

It growled weakly, then assumed a more erect position.

"Now you just have to get started"

"Y... you mean I ha-have to... m-myself... ?" she asked, her tail waving up and down behind her.

"Yes"

"You're... kidding me..." she replied as her gaze fell for a brief moment on the creature's member.

"You can hold on to its feathers. They won't come off that easily, it woun't be bothered if you do"

"Ugh..."

The creature briefly licked Ara's fox hears, both at once, which sent a weak shiver down her spine. She stepped forward a bit, looking at the creature's member while both trying not to. It was... probably a bit too large for her, especially since she was barely wet. She refused to notice any other possible detail of it. She pulled her pantyhose down, just as much as necessary and not an inch more, and pretty much climbed to its chest to bring herself to the right height. It really didn't mind her holding on to its feathers. Her breaths were a bir ragged due to her nervousness. Slowly, she lowered herself on it, stopping as the tip touched her entrance.

_It's... work. Work. It's work. It's work, just work. Work. It's just..._ she kept mentally telling herself.

She started slowly lowering herself, excruciatingly slowly, her face as red as possible. Was she really doing that? She felt her inner walls being pushed aside, the ravenlike creature's reproductive organ being uncomfortably big. She kept slowly lowering herself, until she suddenly felt its hands on her shoulder.

"... eh?"

With a low caw, it started pushing her down, forcibly thrusting its whole length inside her in a couple of seconds. Ara nearly screamed, the sudden movement bringing her very little pleasure and a considerable amount of pain, enough to make her eyes tear up. Her feet were touching the ground now though.

"You should move, or it will get nervous"

"E... easy for... you t-to say..." Ara replied, partially shocked as she held to its feathers.

The creature lowered its head and moved its tongues inside one of Ara's hears, while biting down soflty on it, making her moan weakly.

_It's... ok, it's just... just work..._

Using only her legs, she slowly pushed herself up a bit, feeling its whole length rubbing against her insides, stirring her up. Her tails -she second one had probably grown in response to the pain- were moving around close to the ground, her hears twitching a bit, which made her feel its tongues even more. Once she had completely straightened her legs, Ara held on to its feathers and slowly pulled herself up a bit. She could feel herself getting moist -thankfully- as she then lowered herself, pleasure starting to spread through her. She repeated the whole motion a few times as she tried to get used to its size, then the creature lowered its head even more and slid its tongues in her mouth. Taken aback, Ara partially let go of its feather, falling down along its member, the sudden stimulation sending jolts of both pain and pleasure up her spine. She felt its tongues coiling around hers and toying with it, its saliva mixing with hers.

Then, much to her surprise, it pulled back and leaned backward, to the point it actually fell down on its back. As it was still inside Ara, he dragged her along, causing her to feel its member moving around inside her, pushing back and forth againt her inner walls, the stimulation nearly bringing her to an unexpected orgasm, her breath quickly growing ragged. In that position she was literally sitting on her knees over him, its whole length inserted in her.

"W... what n-now... ?"

"Lead" Oberon said.

"Rea..." she started saying, dropping the question as she was pretty sure she knew the answer already.

She remained still for a short while though, recovering from the sudden movement, until the creature emitted a somewhat angry shriek. With no other choice, she started moving up and down, not much though. But as it cawed again, she realized that she probably had to move more, or faster. Or both. At that point she was wet enough for its member to slide relatively easily back and forth inside of her, though its somewhat excessive size was still detrimental. And so she started riding it, biting down on her lips to keep herself from moaning. The pleasure was building up faster than usual. Was that because she was the one doing it? She wanted to think there was another reason. She felt herself getting closer and closer to her climax, and bit her lips harder as her muscles tensed up. For the first time during her work hours, Ara experienced a full orgasm, a small trail of blood running down her chin as her body trembled slighty, her back arched as her climax shook her limbs. She took a brief pause to catch her breath, and started moving again at the creature's caw, this time a little bit faster.

_I can't believe I'm doing this..._

The creature moved its head in front of hers and ran its tongues on her face for a bit before sliding one inside her mouth again to play with her tongue. While Ara didn't reciprocate, she also didn't oppose it as much as before. She felt herself getting close to another orgasm, still sensitive after her first one, and slowed down her pace. She tried to think of something else, but due to its size, the creature's member was hitting most of her sweet spots at the same time as she moved up and down along it, making it hard to drive her mind to other thoughts. She felt her second climax drawing near as she started digging her nails in her skin, her breaths getting quicker. And then it happened. A jolt ran through her. As in, an actual electric shock, spreading from where she was touching the creature. It was far from being strong enough to be harmful, but the sudden discharge completely dissipated the pleasure which had been piling up within her. She stopped, dumbfounded as she caught her breath. But her partner apparently didn't like that, or at least that's what its hiss seemed to suggest.

"J-just a... moment..." Ara said, though she didn't really expect it to understand.

She then started moving up and down again. She could tell she was wet, and since her orgasm had faded away, she could speed up the peace a bit, her face flushed. She heard something, a very faint sound which made her think of static electricity, but for some reasons she didn't pay it much attention. As she kept shaking her hips up and down, in slowingly larger motions, her hands instinctively went to her chest as she groped her own breasts. Then she realized what she was doing and brought her hands away. She felt her orgasm drawing closer again as her breaths got quicker. But the creature had noticed her previous move, and brought its hands to her chest. While her breasts were larger than average, the creature's hands were, due to their shape and size, not exactly suited for groping them. Instead, he fondled her, mainly by rubbing its thumbs against her. As it felt something hard -namely, her nipples- underneath her clothes, it placed a claw on her dress and brought its finger down, slicing both it and her bra open.

"N- mmnh... not again..." she said, though on the bright side, a clean cut like that was relatively easy to fix.

Ara's voice grew louder as her partner played with her now bare chest and nipples. Maybe because it felt her tightening up around his member as he did so, he started licking her breasts as well. Maybe without even noticing it, she sped up her movements a bit as she felt her orgasm getting closer and closer, digging her fingers in her arm in anticipation, her hears twitching a bit. Then, another electric shock ran though her. As she screamed and moaned at the same time, her limbs shaking slighty due to the current, she felt the pleasure dissipating, her orgasm once again disappearing. She stopped, gasping.

"Y-you... what..."

"Stopping now would be a bad idea"

Oberon's voice suddenly reminded that not only she was shaking her hips on top of a... thing, she was also doing it in front of someone. Her face turned even redder.

"D-don't... let me just... just what am I doing..."

At that point Ara was hesitant. She wiped a few tears off her face -probably caused by the suddent jolts of electricity- as she wondered what to do. Was she going to get anothet shock if she started moving again? The creature's low caw reminded her that she actually didn't have much of a choice. She started riding it once again, but after a relatively short while she felt something. Its member started throbbing, pushing even more against her walls, which brought her more pain than anything else.

_W-wait, it's..._

Ara felt a very faint current running from the creature to her, current which grew stronger with each pulsation, erasing her pleasure. But not her arousal. She bit her lips and covered her mouth with her hand as she felt its hot seed being released deep within her, the current peaking at the same time. The creature had started moving up and down a bit by itself, which, combined with its throbbing, felt actually better than she was willing to admit. Or rather, it should have, as the current was basically preventing her pleasure from building up. She could feel it, granted, but it couldn't pile up in that situation. After a minute or so, the creature stopped, and Ara started gaping for air. The current had stopped, but it had left her limbs numb. She failed to keep herself up and fell down on its member, which completely entered her. She looked at her back and confirmed that a third tail had grown at some point.

"I-I'm... done..." she said then, still somewhat short of air.

"I'm afraid not" Oberon replied.

She didn't respond, instead she turned to Oberon, a mix of different feelings all showing on her face. He found that... amusing. Then the creature, seeing that she had -again- stopped, brought an arm behind her to make sure she'd not fall as it stood back up. With its full length still inside her, the process almost brought Ara to a climax. The creature looked around briefly then walked to a rock. He took her in his large hands and pulled her up, causing her to moan, before resting her on the rock, on her back.

"W-wait, you're not..."

The creature placed its hands over her arms, and while it was actually resting its weight mostly on its palms, it still effectively prevented her from moving. It then moved closer, and Ara felt its large tip against her now dripping entrance, along with a very faint current.

"W-wait wait wait, no no no..."

With a single motion, the creature pushed its whole length inside of her, and Oberon wasn't sure if she moaned or screamed. It then started moving back and forth, nearly pulling out completely before thrusting its member back inside of her all the way to the base each time, his long neck bent down as it coiled its tongues around her breasts, and Ara found herself caught in a limbo. That creature was pleasuring her -there was some pain due to its size, sure, but she couldn't deny that it also felt good-, her tails and hears all moving around as if to further prove it, but the costant electricity flowing to her, which kept going back and forth between being hardly noticeable and impossible to ignore at each thrust, nearly continuosly dissipated the pleasure which would have otherwise built up within her. In those conditions it was impossible for her to get anywhere close to an orgasm, but as the stimulations continued her arousal and frustration kept growing and growing, her now four tails instinctively coiling around the creature.

One of Oberon's eyebrows, maybe without him even noticing, twitched at that.

Ara was moaning constantly, with an additional scream whenever the current became too strong, tears running down her face. Eventually she felt its member throbbing again, until the creature released his seed inside of her again as she digged her nails in the palm of her own hands out of frustration. Or at least she tried. The serpentine being then stopped moving for a short while, then pulled out of her. Ara was gaping for air, covered in sweat and, between her legs, in other fluids as well, her tails letting go of her feathered partner, which then grabbed her and turned her upside down, leaving her leaning on her belly. It then slid its tongues underneath her dress and ran them on her spine, licking her sweat off and giving her small chills, occasionally bumping into the rope running around her chest. Then, with a single, swift motion, he thrust itself back into her.

Ara didn't scream nor moan, the sudden, deep penetration leaving her nearly breathless, but the creature either didn't care or didn't notice and started moving back and forth. Due to the different position, the stimulation felt largely different, and its tongues running on her back somehow made her even more aroused and sensitive. But then the electric current started flowing again, and Ara felt herself going from close to her orgasm straight back to nothing again and again. As if that wasn't enough, the corvine creature started playing with her fox hears, which only heightened her arousal even more. She couldn't even try to get away, even though her partner wasn't holding her down in any way, as her limbs felt numb and weak. Because of that, she could do nothing but drown in the sensation. Actually, that's not a good expression, as the pleasure kept piling up and being erased before bringing her to a climax. The creature kept moving faster and faster, until it became painful as well. Then she felt its hot seed being released deep inside her again, the feeling bringing her nearly insantly to her orgasm, only for the electric shock to dissipate all of it. Then the pleasure immediatly piled up again and got erased by the current once more, the whole process repeating itself for two minutes which felt like two hours, if not more.

The creature then pulled out and finally stepped away from Ara. It took the rope in his mouth again and started biting down on it again, to no avail. Giving up on that, he headed to the pillar, and met Oberon on the way. He was standing, one hand resting on his weapons at his side, the other hanging in the air relaxed. They stared at each other for a short while, then the feathered snake turned around, walked back to Ara, who was too busy taking fresh air into her lungs to notice anything- and licked her a bit more, at which she moaned weakly. It then walked away and eventually took flight, going back to its temporary nest.

_She did try_ he thought as he looked at her.

He then went to the pillar and undid the knots around it, then walked up to Ara while coiling up the rope, and freed her from it. He placed it over his shoulder, then took her in his arms and walked away. Ara tried to move, maybe to cover her exposed chest or pull up her pantyhose, maybe to do something completely different, but her limbs -even her five tails- were too numbed by all the current. He brought her back to her room and left her on the bed, lying on her back, covered her with her coat then walked out. Ara tried to move, she desperately tried to bring her hands between her legs, but her limbs just wouldn't respond to her. Then, Oberon came back and put the chastity belt back on her.

"I'll go make dinner" he said then as she walked to the door, wondering if she could eat by herself in those conditions or if he had to help her.

"I'm not... I'm not hungry" she said, her voice somewhat broken.

"... alright"

He walked away, closing the door behind him.

After a few moments, Ara shouted, as that was the only thing she could do at the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure electricity works that way but eh, it's a (sort of) fantasy anyway? I guess...


	8. The Veterinarian

**The Veterinarian**

Not much time later, Oberon walked back inside the room, a small bowl and a spoon in his hands.

"I... I told you I'm not hungry"

"This is more of a tonic" he said "It should help you recover"

Ara didn't reply, and so Oberon moved to her side, sat next to her and brought her up, making her lean with her back against the bedframe, then covered her chest with her coat. Though Ara's face was already -or rather, still- as red as it could get. He brought a spoonful of what seemed to be soup to her face, and after a rather long hesitation she took it in her mouth. It tasted bitter. She felt like a little child, which wasn't really a good thing. The bowl was rather small, so it didn't take that long to finish it, which wasn't really that great of a consolation. Then, as he stood up, she spoke.

"O-Oberon, could... you..."

"Taking the belt off now would be rather pointless, wouldn't it?"

"That's... I mean..."

But even in those conditions she couldn't bring herself to ask him to sleep with her. Or at least to masturbate her. He broght her back to a lying position, then walked out, leaving her to her frustration and her inner groans. He stopped right out of the door, reflecting. He had an idea of what Ara was trying to ask of him, and the reason he had avoided the subject was that he was... scared might be a bit excessive of a word, but it probably conveyed the right idea. He could picture that morning in his mind so clearly he could almost relive it. He had liked that, greatly, though he wasn't sure why. But he had lost control of himself, and that had never happened. The thought of that occurring again was... unpleasant. As he walked away, he wondered just how could she confuse him that way, since she wasn't even trying to do so. Was it some sort of odd talent?

* * *

Ara woke up in the same position she had fallen asleep in. The first thing she did was try to move, and to her sweet relief her limbs answered her orders. She stood up, threw her coat on her back and adjusted her cut dress to at least give the impression of it covering her breasts. Or at least that was her intention, as she noticed that the cut had been sewn close. Her bra had been repaired as well. Did Oberon really fix them while she was sleeping, without even taking them off? She decided not to think about it.

She ran out of the room, still barefooted. Her tails were quickly wagging behind her as she ran to the kitchen, the tingling between her legs getting stronger as the soreness of her body faded, her fluids running down her thighs, dampening her pantyhose through the chastity belt. She slammed open the door, and while Oberon was nowhere to be seen, an abundant and still warm breakfast was already on the table. Aroused as she was, Ara did skip dinner the previous day and due to that she was really hungry. She ate everything as quickly as possible, paying little to no attention to how anything tasted like, before she started looking all over the menagerie for him, going to pretty much every room at least twice, but he had apparently vanished. Exasperated, she searched all over the place one more time, this time looking for the key itself. She didn't really think he had left it somewhere, but she had nothing else to do. After nearly four hours and having searched everywhere barring the domes -going there alone didn't seem like a good idea to her-, she went back to her room, and out of pure frustration searched there as well. She found neither him nor the key, though the opposite would have surprised her.

What did surprise her was that the anal plug was missing as well. Because Oberon decided to wash it, though she didn't know that. She then started walking everywhere in the menagerie while going nowhere, walking fast, simply because she couldn't think of anything else to do, her hands occasionally scratching against the belt, sometimes with too much strength. She kept wandering around, her tails waving behind her, her hears standing right up most of the time, and at some point she started running. And she didn't stop until around midday, when she went back to her room and dropped herself on the bed, panting. Maybe it was the tiredness, maybe the time which had gone by, or maybe simply having done some exercise -if running in circles counted as an exercise, that is- but she was calmer now, a bit at least. Though she was still moist underneath the belt, one of her tails had disappeared, the remaining four resting on the sheets next to her.

After having caught her breath she sat in a corner of the room, hugged her legs and tried to think of how she could spend her free time. And while the... wrong kind of thoughts -wrong given the current circumstances as they made the tingling even more intense- did pop up every now and then, she overall managed to keep herself distracted. On the other hand, she still failed to come up with any way to really kill some time. Sitting on the floor thinking about random things wasn't exactly her definition of fun. She did have some money, but... truth is she wasn't used to being alone. Either Eun or her brother, but there had always been someone at her side, and ever since the Fox left, she felt somewhat... lost. Well, Oberon was there, but maybe due to the peculiar situation she was in and the role he had in it, she had some trouble trying to casually spend some time with him. She did ask him to teach her how to cook, but still... which reminded her she was hungry. Just as her stomach growled, Oberon walked in, making her jump to her feet, her tails and hears standing straight up.

"Where the he- where were you?!"

"Grocery shopping"

"For the whole morning?!"

"I had a few other things to do as well. Lunch is ready" he said as he casually placed the plug -actually, it wasn't the same one as before- on the table "You should come down"

"B-before that... well..."

"Your cheeks are red"

"Of course they are!"

"I guess" he replied before turning around and leaving.

Ara ran after him, but stopped on her tracks when she passed next to the plug. Her hand reached for it, but then she decided to go after the key instead and hurried after it -or rather, the one having it-, and found him already in the kitchen.

"The key! Hand it over, right now!"

"Quite amusing" he replied as he handed her something to drink, talking about how Ara hadn't asked yet exactly how much money it costed her to take the belt off.

"For you maybe!" she said back. But Since she had sweated quite a bit in the morning -for several reasons- and was quite thirsty, she didn't refure the drink. Then, as Oberon was walking in front of her and she was gulping the... that wasn't water but she didn't really care at the moment. Anyway, the door opened.

"Hello" Rena said, stopping on her tracks the moment she saw Oberon wasn't alone.

Ara choked on half of what she was drinking and spit the other half out, over Oberon as he was still in front of her. The elf tried to hide her chuckles.

"W-w-wait, why are you here?! And... uhg, ah, ehr... s-sorry!"

He casually took a napkin and started wiping himself.

"Don't worry"

"What are you doing here, Eu... no, Ara?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you!"

"I work as a veterinary here, for some time every year. You can think of it as a periodic health check. ... you know what I'm talking about, right?" she then added, since she actually didn't know if Ara was aware of the lower floors, though her mere presence there most likely meant she was.

"Y-yes..." she replied.

That... well, made sense. She had always thought Oberon took care of everything, but she could see Rena being more knowledgeable about animals -they could be called animals right?- than him.

"What about you? And why are you... like that?" the elf asked as she walked in.

"Ehr, this is... well..."

Ara hid her tails behind her, not that it helped, as she thought of what to say. Telling her what she did there was out of the question.

"She works as an entertainer. She started this month" said Oberon.

"An... entertainer?" the elf inquired, confused, but got no further explanations about it.

"About the key..." Oberon started saying.

"Which key?"

"It's nothing! Really, nothing at all!" Ara shouted. Then she realized Rena had no way to know what said key could unlock, but asking Oberon to give it to her at that point meant having to tell the elf something, and she couldn't come up with any plausible lie at the moment.

And so they started eating, the two of them at least -Oberon had gotten something ready in the meantime-, and Ara told Rena about Eun leaving. As for her current appearance, she avoided saying exactly why she was like that, though all that talk was helping her keeping her mind away from the tingling.

"Do you have a swimsuit?" Oberon then asked while reading still the same book.

"Eh?"

"You might need one in a couple of days" he told Ara.

"Oh, in which dome are you taking her?" asked Rena.

"The lake one" he replied.

"So you help with them too? I'm curious to see what you do" she said, as "entertainer" wasn't something she had immediatly associated to them.

"No!" Ara shouted as she got up. Then she realized what she had just done "I-I mean no, I don't have a swimsuit..."

"Ara, your face is all red. Actually, it's been red ever since I walked in. Do you have a fever?"

"I'm fine, really" she blatantly lied.

"Then how about we go shopping today? I can unpack my stuff later"

"About that..." she replied as she looked at her tails.

"Oh, right. I guess you would stand out far too much looking like that" she said. Rena's long hears were already enough to draw a lot of gazes when walking around the city, so she could easily picture what would happen were Ara to go around with tails and fox hears "Well, I can buy you one. Your measures are still the same right?"

"Yes, they are..." she replied while looking at the elf's chest.

Rena's presence was somewhat relaxing for Ara, mainly because the elf was the only one in their group with larger breasts than her and that helped her being less aware of her own... endowment, which always drew gazes.

"You arrived early" Oberon then commented.

"True" she replied "I was supposed to come here around next week" she then explained to Ara "But I've heard from Eve that the fair was going to be held earlier than usual, and I'm a bit curious about it"

"Earlier? As in..." Ara asked.

"In a couple of weeks instead of next month"

Then she stood up.

"I'll be off now, there are a few things I need to buy besides your swimsuit"

"S-sure"

Then she walked out. Or rather, she tried, but as she was about to grab the door handle someone else opened it from the other side. Ophelia stepped aside as Eve herself walked in. Oberon, who was previously sitting down reading the usual book, had already gotten up from his chair upon hearing his mistress's footsteps in the hallway.

"Oh, Eve. Hi"

"Were you heading out?"

"Yes"

"You can take Ophelia with you if you need"

"No thanks, I don't have that many things to buy"

And so the elf walked away. Ara looked at Eve, with a mix of anger and fear in her eyes. And mostly embarassment.

"How is your work going?" the owner of the place asked as she sat down while Oberon started preparing some tea and Ophelia went to cook something for her.

"My work?!" she shouted in reply as she jumped off her chair, slamming her fists on the table, her tails waving wildly behind her "This isn't work, you're using me as a p... a pr... a pros... as a courtesan for... for animals!"

"I don't see how could something like that not qualify as a job. Besides, are you sure you aren't enjoying it?"

"Of course I'm not!"

"I'll take that as a yes" she replied. While Ara wasn't aware of it, every single thing that happened inside there was filmed, and Eve could see the recordings whenever she wanted.

"I said no!"

"Has Rena told you about the fair?" she then asked Oberon, who nodded in reply "Good. Since I'm here already I'll check on how much we have stored. Wouldn't want to disappoint the regulars"

Then she started eating. Ara, on the other hand, left the kitchen. She stopped right out of the door though. Oberon still had the key, but after arguing like that with Eve she couldn't just go back in... sighing, she walked back to her room and tried to sleep, an attempt at getting some relief from her own arousal. After an hour or more of rolling around on the bed, however, she got back up, and her gaze fell on the plug which Oberon had left in her room and which she had somehow forgotten about.

* * *

Eve had left Ophelia to clean up the kitchen and was now checking the menagerie's stocks with Oberon.

"Mistress, may I ask something?"

"Go ahead" she replied while they walked from a room to the other, Eve making a mental list of everything.

"It's unusual for you to come visit here so often. Is something special planned for this year's fair?"

"It is, yes" she answered as she stopped and turned around to face him "I've rented a certain building for the third day of the fair, and I was planning on putting Ara on display there. With tails, ears and the different hair color, adding a mask should be more than enough to make sure nobody recognizes her"

"You mean making her mate in public?"

"Pretty much, I know of certain people who would pay unreasonable sums to get to see something like that live. You will be there in case something goes wrong, though so far she has had no problems"

A brief silence.

"You know, you seem worried" she said then.

"My apologies"

"Since we're already on this subject, I'd like to know what happened that morning" she said.

Of course he knew menagerie was filled to the brim with hidden cameras, there's no way Eve wouldn't know what happened inside there, but maybe he still hoped for her not to talk about that.

"I lost control"

Eve smirked.

"I know Ara is really good at flipping people's switches without realizing it, but I thought you had no switch to flip in the first place"

Oberon wondered how -and if- he was supposed to answer that as Eve turned around and started walking to a certain dome.

"With him?" he asked as they walked to the antechamber of a certain dome.

"What better match is there for a fox than another fox?"

Logic. ... sort of, since Ara wasn't really a fox. And he did think almost the same thing shortly after she had started working there.

"I'll give you more instrunctions at most a week before the beginning of the fair, make sure to not make her mate with him until the exhibition. And don't let her out of the menagerie either until then"

He simply nodded.

* * *

Ara looked around for a short while, found the lotion lying under the bed -how did that end up there?-, placed it on the table and poured some of it on the plug, then pulled her pantyhose down while resting her weight on the chair. She placed the plug againt her butt and pushed it in, not even that slowly. It was definitively bigger than the previous one, as Ara could feel it stretching her insides, but she could take it. Just as she was about to start moving around, however, someone knocked at the door.

"Ara, are you there?"

She almost shouted and jumped in surprise as panic took over her, for a brief second at least, then it got replaced by... less strong panic? She pulled her pantyhose back up, nearly ripping it in the process, and pushed her skirt down. Then she literally threw the lotion away from the table as that was right in front of the door a few moments before Rena walked in, carrying a few small bags with her.

"Ara, are you alright? You screamed as if... I don't know, you screamed" she said as she left her buys on the table.

"I'm fine! I'm totally fine! Really!" she replied. Thankfully the bottle of lotion had somehow landed back under the bed.

The elf looked at her. Her face was even redder than it was at lunch, she was sweating a bit, her ears -her fox ones- were twitching, and her tails were waving nervously. For some reason, she was also holding her hands behind her back.

"... no really, you don't look fine"

"A-a-anyway, how did your shopping go?"

She knew Ara well enough to know she was the type to hide nearly all of her problems from others, and putting pressure on her wouldn't have convinced her to speak. So Rena decided to go along with it and let her change subject, for the time being at least.

"Nicely, I found everything. Oh, and here it is" she said as she took a one-piece swimsuit out of one of the bags and gave it to Ara.

It was black with a few amber decorations here and there, and completely covered the back as well as the front.

"Want to try it on?"

"N-no, thanks"

"Why not?"

_Because I'm wearing a chastity belt and a plug at the moment..._

"N-no particular reason, really"

Rena was better at reading animals than she was at understanding people, and while she could tell what the way Ara's tails and ears were moving was usually associated to, she thought that she was wrong. She had to be wrong, as she really couldn't see Ara possibly being in such a state -that is, in heat, or strongly aroused since humans didn't go on heat-, Eun's influence or not. She probably had some sort of cold or something like that to cause her fox parts to move that way. Rena had never had the chance to study the habits and behavior of someone with fox features after all, so she might very well be associating that to the wrong thing.

"B-by the way, where are you going to sleep?"

"Well, with you, at least for tonight. Oberon wasn't warned that I'd arrive earlier than usual so there isn't a room ready. I hope it doesn't bother you"

"N-not at all"

_Of course it does!_

"... Ara, you're still red. And your..." she said as she attempted to bring the conversation back to that topic.

"I'm fine, really" she replied, forcibly plastering a smile on her face.

The plug's straps hadn't been fastened and the only thing preventing them from hanging down was her pantyhose. On top of that, since she was just about to masturbate -anally and for the first time at that- her arousal, which had previously calmed down a bit, had gone back up, and with the plug inserted the tingling between her legs felt even more intense than before.

"Listen Ara, you're making me worry a bit"

"I-I'm going to the bathroom!" she said as she sprinted out of the room.

"Hey!"

Ara went to the other room and locked herself inside, then tried to masturbate using the plug, but as that wasn't what it was meant for and she had no idea how to reach orgasm with that kind of stimulation the only thing she got out of it was more frustration. Eventually Oberon called her for dinner. Eve, Rena and Ophelia were all already in the kitchen, one of them already sitting at the table while the elf was still taking a seat. Rena decided to ask Ara what had gotten into her later on. As for Ara herself, she hesitated a bit before sitting, Eve's mere presence making her rather uncomfortable.

"Say, Eve" Rena asked as they started eating, Oberon and Ophelia acting as waiters "What's Ara's job here?"

"They didn't tell you?"

"They said she's an entertainer, but..."

"An entertainer" Eve repeated the word as she looked at both Oberon and Ara, the latter averting her gaze "I guess that's a way to put it"

"Yes, but what does that mean exactly? I mean, here?"

"You'll probably see for yourself soon enough"

The conversation reminded Ara of her arrival there. Sadly. That said, after that they talked about more normal stuff, and as soon as she finished eating Eve stood up.

"I'll come back before the fair to check on things again" she said before leaving, Ophelia following her.

As for Ara and Rena, they were still eating. Oberon, on his part, had taken a seat and started reading again.

"So, why do you need a swimsuit?" Rena asken after a while.

"I'm... not sure I understand what you mean" Ara replied.

"I guess you'll have to dive into the lake since Oberon brought it up, but it's not like there's someone else there watching you. I thought you went naked when you took a bath"

"How does this count as there not being anyone?" she asked back while pointing at an indifferent Oberon.

"But he doesn't care, so what's the problem? I mean, are you embarassed when a cat sees you without clothing?"

"He's not a cat!"

"But he's just as interested in your body as one would be, isn't he?"

Ara knew that Rena had a... different opinion about several things, mostly due to elves having a different culture -probably?-, but that whole conversation was rather surprising anyway.

"That's..." she replied, her mind going back to that morning yet again "N-no, I guess he's not..." she said, confused.

Well, it's true that even in that situation they didn't go all the way but... actually, could Oberon even have sex? Eve could, sure, but she had been designed to replicate most humans functions. Oberon, on the other hand, was a model designed for battle so...

"Ara, you're turning even redder than you were before..."

"Ah, s-sorry!"

"What are you apologizing for now?"

"Ehr..."

And apparently the conversation ended there. Rena finished eating before Ara and went to Ara's -momentary their- room saying she wanted to sort out some of her stuff before going to sleep.

"Is there a reason she's so sure you're not... well..."

"Did you try the plug?" he asked, avoiding the question.

A brief silence.

"Y-yes, I did..." she replied. She had left it in the bathroom before coming down for dinner though.

"If you don't feel prepared yet you should keep it on during tomorrow's session"

"I see..." she replied, sighing.

When she went back to her room she found Rena in the middle of changing into her night robe, and shortly after the elf went to sleep. As for Ara, she waited around half an hour, hoping for Rena to be really sleeping, then recovered the lotion from under the bed and went to the bathroom, where she put the plug back in, proberly fastening the straps. She went back to her room, took off only her coat while keeping her clothes on to make it less likely for Rena to see either the belt or the straps of the plug were she to wake up before her and slid under the blanket, lying down facing Rena to avoid having her tails bother her. She counted them. Three.

"Sigh..."

That said, she remained awake for probably more than two hours, the presence of someone else in the same bed while she was in that state making her too nervous to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it sorta went unmentioned, Rena is wearing the Night Watcher outfit. Not sure pointing it out in the notes is a good idea, but still.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	9. It's Night Already

**It's Night Already  
**

Ara woke up late, as her usual, got up and stretched her limbs, her tails waving behind her. Rena wasn't there and neither were her luggages. Unlike almost every other morning, Ara wasn't feeling sleepy even though she had just gotten up. She checked her clothes. They were mostly in place, which meant Rena most likely hadn't seen the belt nor the plug. She looked around a bit then went to the bathroom, locked the door and took off the plug, and the feeling of her butt being left open was... she brought her thoughts to other things. She wondered if keeping it on while sleeping had been a reckless thing to do. Driving her mind away, she washed her face, went back to her room to hide the plug in a drawer then walked to the stairs, stopping halfway as she noticed that one of the other, previously empty rooms had been furnished. When she got to the kitchen she found Rena eating a couple of snacks.

"I see you still wake up late"

"I guess..."

The elf noticed Ara's face was still red, and wondered when she'd get her to say what was going on about it.

"Say" Ara then asked as she took something to drink "Do you know anything about the fair?"

"Almost nothing, speaking the truth. I've heard there's a group of guards making sure nobody can sneak in uninvited, but when I asked Eve about what goes on during those days she simply said people come here to buy and sell. I guess she wasn't simply talking about shopping though"

"So this place will turn into a store?"

"Maybe, though I really doubt Eve would let you handle anything about that. Don't take it the wrong way but you'd probably break something valuable were you to work in a shop"

The elf then wondered why Ara got so gloomy after that remark since it was something she was -or should, at least- already be aware of. Though she didn't know that saying that made her remember how she ended up in her current situation. They spent the next hour chatting about various things, until Oberon walked in and started making lunch. Time went by, and a couple of hours later the three of them were all in the elevator, Rena carrying a small bag with her. Ara, her swimsuit in hand, was nervous.

"S-say, are you sure about this?" she asked Rena.

"What do you mean?" the elf replied, a bit confused "I'm curious to see what you do here, and once you're done I can proceed with the check up" she said, unsure of what Ara meant.

"Right..."

They reached the fifth underground level and moved to the door labeled with the number one. The room they walked in -unlike all the others, they had to go up a spiral staircase to get there- had the usual table, chair and a small drawer, as well as a rather large tank of water, wide but only a bit more than a meter tall. On the bottom of it were several fish eggs each a bit larger than a child's clenched fist, or at least that's what Ara thought of upon seeing them. On closer look there were a few striking differences. Rena then started undressing, and Ara looked at her. The elf stopped for a moment, and for the following few seconds they stared at each other.

"... right" she said as she put her corset back on "I'll be right back" Rena commented before heading out to take her swimsuit, which she had left in her room. She had forgotten that Ara was one of those people who got embarassed even when seeing someone of the same gender naked.

Ara felt like taking a breath of relief, but knowing what was about to happen she decided not to. Oberon unlocked her belt, took it and put it inside the drawer.

"What about the plug?" he asked while Ara was changing into her swimsuit. There was an hole -specially made by her- in the swimsuit to let her tails through

"Ehr, well, that... I f-forgot it" she said, unsure herself if she was lying or not.

"I see"

They waited there for Rena to come back. When the elf walked inside the room again she had already changed into her two piece, green swimsuit. She dropped her clothes on the table as Ara had left hers on the chair then, taking the same bag she had brought down earlier with her, they all walked into the dome. While at first glace it was hard to tell, the ceiling was considerably lower, three meters high at most, maybe even less. As Ara had expected from what she had heard the previous day, there was a large lake there, taking up almost the whole space and leaving only two rather small islets on which were a few bushes, incredibly short trees and -on one- them, the other being on the opposite side of the dome from the entrance and completely covered in bushes. There was also a narrow but long pier right above the surface of the lake, with a stair at the end which dove right into the water. The first steps had a very long stread and a short riser, but further from the pier the proportions switched, the stread getting smaller and the riser noticeably higher.

"So, uh... I won't have to do this in apnea, right?" Ara asked.

"Don't worry, it will mostly be above the water surface. And you're not here on your own"

"So, does one of us go first or can we do it at the same time?" Rena asked, not knowing that given what Ara's job was, her wording sounded incredibly ambiguos.

"S-say, what's it's, uh, temper?" she asked the elf.

"Mostly calm, why?"

"M-maybe it's better if you go first. I really don't think you can do your check up while I'm... uh... w-working"

"If that's the case then do you mind going first? I'm really curious to see what your job exactly is"

Ara looked at Oberon hoping for some sort of help, but he simply stared back at her for a short while before walking to the end of the pier. She sighed as she walked up to him with Rena following right behind, the bag still in her hands.

"Sit here" Oberon told Ara after having taken a few steps down the ladder.

Much more nervous than usual, she did so and sat down, the water reaching slightly above her covered belly button. As for Oberon, he went back on the pier and sat there. Rena did the same and, after a short while, something moved underneath the water, swam all the way up to them and arrived in front of Ara, who had gotten up on her feet in the meanwhile. From the lake emerged what seemed to be a snake, its body being a bit larger than Ara's arms and covered in small, teal scales. It had four eyes, all locked on her, and what seemed to be small fins here and there on its body, three in particular over its head, said ones probably having little practical utility but really nice to look at. It moved back and forth a bit, then right and left, looking at Ara. The snake emitted a low, long hiss, but she remained where she was. Shortly after four large fins unfolded from its long body and spread open behind it. They didn't look sturdy enough to really be fit for swimming, but given how colorful they were that most likely wasn't their purpose to begin with.

"... wait, that's..." Rena started saying, but Oberon interrupted her.

"Move down along the stair" he told Ara, who did so.

"That's a courtship" the elf told Oberon with a low tone, since being too loud might have put Ara in danger given her position and what was happening.

"I know"

"Then why did you..."

"This is the job the mistress gave Ara"

"There's no way she'd do something like this willingly!"

"After a certain event she found herself greatly indebted to the mistress and this is how she's paying it off. You're the one who said that the lack of mating partners was making them too nervous"

"I did, yes, but I meant you should have taken in female exemplars, not this!"

"Discussing this with me is pointless, the one taking these decisions is the mistress"

"Tsk"

They both walked to the first step of the stair and stopped there, Oberon sitting down again. Ara had gone down along it quite a lot, the water now almost reaching her breasts. Her tails getting drenched was a bit bothersome, but it was nothing she couldn't deal with. The snake had moved its long head in front of her and was running it almost against her skin, smelling her, then moved back a bit and hissed again, it's mouth opening, the lower jaw splitting in two as it did so, showing off an almost disturbing amount of long, tiny teeth which strongly resembled needles. Its fins waved behind it, casting a colorful shadow over Ara. She took another step forward.

"How long as she been... ?"

"This is her sixth session"

"Why is it even courting Ara?"

"Her choker emits a smell to stimulate them. From what I've seen, however, I'd say that they apparently all quite like her as that scent alone wouldn't be enough to cause such a quick and intense reaction. Maybe she has some sort of talent for this"

"Don't joke about it"

Ara's tails were waving behind her. In anticipation, though maybe she wasn't really aware of it herself. The snake leaned in closer, its mouth still open, and placed his four tongues on her exposed skin before running them on her for a short while. Then it backed off a bit, folded its fins back around its body and dove underwater. It ran itself around her right leg a few times, starting at her ankle, then moved up, moved between her legs and circled around her abdomen, then a couple of times around one of her arms before finally placing its head in front of Ara's. It was cold to the touch, maybe a bit colder than the water, and she wasn't sure if the scales had bruised her skin or not, but she'd been through worse. Which... was in itself a bad thing.

Rena thought about interrupting them, but doing so would have... let's just say the snake would have been really, really annoyed.

"I can call you once she's done"

"No, thanks" she replied to Oberon. She wanted to make sure nothing went wrong. Well, wronger than that.

While the snake was standing rather still, at least with the part of its body which was wrapped around Ara, its muscles kept contracting and then relaxing, making the scales rub against her skin and, more importantly, against her privates. Her breaths were quick and short as her pent-up arousal kicked in, her face flushed. The snake's tongues then slid underneath her swimsuit and ran over her skin, circling around her breasts, sending shivers along her spine. Ara placed her free hand over her chest and started fondling her breasts, and after a short moment the snake imitated her as she felt one of its tongues poking at her nipples. Oberon and Rena were behind her and somewhat far so they couldn't see what she was doing. Or at least that's what Ara wanted to believe. The snake moved its head around Ara and she kept her gaze on it, letting out her voice when one of its tongues crawled all the way to her entrance. They were smooth, but the pressure from her swimsuit pushed them against her skin and made its movement against her privates hard to ignore. Not that she wanted to, anyway. The tongue then bumped against her clit, and the snake seemed to like her reaction as it then started running that tongue against it as one more crawled up to her ears.

At that point Ara nearly moved her hand between her legs, but stopped halfway. Maybe Oberon and Rena would have noticed it if she actually started fingering herself. ... actually, did she really just consider doing that with them there? Just as she was thinking about that the snake clinged to her more and at the same time she felt something... swelling? against her privates. While she couldn't see what it was due to its body blocking her sight, she had an idea. Being coiled around her, the snake was both making it hard for her to stand and holding her up at the same time, which combined with being in the water gave her a rather weird feeling of half-suspension. Its tongues then suddenly retracted into its mouth, almost making her jump as one slided against her clit in the process, as its jaw opened more that it already was before it placed it on her left shoulder. Apparently its head was really flexible as the upper jaw closed down on Ara's back, following the curves of her body almost perfectly, while the four parts making up the lower jaw wrapped around her torax. She could feel its teeth poking against her skin, but he wasn't really biting her.

The tongues then extended again, wrapping around her body once more. This time, however, two went straight at her erected nipples. She felt the swelling growing larger, and moved her hand down between her legs. She was getting a bit impatient, her tails waving with a mixture of nervousness and excitement behind her. She moved her swimsuit aside and almost immediatly something penetrated her, making her let out a weak scream. She wasn't wet enough apparently, or maybe the water was washing away her natural lubrificant, and she hadn't expected the snake's member to be that long. On top of that it was still swelling, and unlike the rest of its body that part was warm. Hot even. Maybe a bit too much. And while the snake was standing rather still, the contraction of its muscles effectively pushed its member back and fort inside of her. With her pent up arousal making her far more sensitive than she normally was supposed to be, Ara could feel her climax approaching quickly, but before she could bite on her own lips the snake bit her. It didn't puch too much strength into it, not enough to completely bury its teeth into her flesh -that would have been dangerous- but still enough to make them sink inside her.

As it kept getting bigger, its tongues became more violent and one went from sliding against her clit to coiling completely around it, the sudden stimulation bringing her to her orgasm, pleasure radiating from her nether regions to the rest of her body as the pain from its teeth gave her the further push she needed. The snake felt her shaking and held her tighter, which made her feel it even more as she held her breath and relieved in the pleasure, barely managing to hold her voice in as Oberon and Rena were still watching her after all. The main problem was Rena though, since she was sort of getting used to Oberon's presence. Then, however, she felt something else on her back, and she knew immediatly what that was. For some reasons she didn't feel much whenever her ears of the first three tails came out, but the same didn't go for the others. While still in the middle of her climax, Ara grew a fourth tail, and the feeling of all the new nerves connecting to her system piled up with the pleasure and the pain, sent her way over the edge. Her tails started waving wildy as her ears twitched intensely, and she lost control over her own voice, at least for a few seconds.

"Did she... ?" the elf asked, her face red.

"Most likely"

Ara heard something but didn't quite catch what they were talking about. As her body stopped shivering she let herself go. The snake, taken by surprise, failed to support her and she fell on the stair, ending up below the water surface. After a brief moment of panic she managed to get her head back up, the snake also helping her, and she found herself in a sitting position while actually not being sitting on anything, the creature holding her up. It opened its mouth for a brief moment to adjust the angle of his bite, and then started swelling again, to the point Ara was starting to worry about it, or rather about its length. Then something happened. She felt a tip poking against her rear, then something thin slid inside her butt, making her let out a small shriek. The snake's first member stopped growing as the second one started, and Ara wondered how in the world she could have forgotten about the plug after Oberon had warned her about it. And why hadn't she gone back up to retrieve it anyway?

Her arousal being kept somewhat in check by her recent orgasm, Ara was taking the change to calm down, though the feeling of her rear being spread open and driving most of her attention on it made calming down rather hard. Thanks to all the... training she had, at least, the penetration didn't came as too much of a shock. Just as her breaths had gotten regular again, the snake started using its tongues to play with her sensitive spots. Taken by surprise, she failed to hold in her moans, and when it started actually moving its body to thrust back and forth inside her she really lost control over her voice again.

She didn't know exactly how she had expected anal intercourse to be -she wasn't even sure she really had any expectation- but it sure was a lot more intense than she had thought. And while she had had... wider things inside her, the snake was definitively longer, to the point it was reaching parts of her she didn't even know could be stimulated. The fact that she was resting most of her weight on it only made the penetration deeper, a mixture of pleasure and pain reverberating within her. But then the snake's tongues simply wrapped around her and stopped moving, his thrusts slowing down as well, to the point she would have thought it had fallen asleep or something like that if not for its eyes still being open. She took the chance to catch her breath and take another look at the snake. It was far longer than she had first thought. Time went by, minutes after minutes, the slow but steady motion of its two members inside her keeping her aroused but doing little to actually stimulate her. She wondered if Oberon and Rena would have been able to tell if she started masturbating from where they were.

Then she felt like banging her head against a wall for thinking that. Her recent orgasm hadn't helped her calm down, at least not as much as she had hoped it would, and her current situation was even worse than being locked up in that chastity belt. Had Oberon been the only one there, maybe she would have really tried to finger herself since, all things considered, they had already... . But with Rena there as well the thought was too embarassing. The snake then opened its mouth and moved his head to her sides, biting her there. She noticed there were drops of blood where its teeth had sunk in, but the holes in her flesh were, despite their number, really too thin and shallow to really be of any concern. As time kept going by, she realized that the situation wasn't as bad as she had first thought. She could feel pleasure building up deep within her, but at such a slow rate that she wondered if she'd ever get to have another orgasm by the time the snake was done. As she thought that, it suddenly let go of her almost completely, its scales swiftly running against her skin in the process and leaving scratches here and there. The sudden loss of support made her fall down again, and this time before pulling her back up the snake twisted around a bit, which also sent a sudden wave of pleasure through her system as its members were shook around inside her.

She found herself upside down, facing the stairs, and moved up a few ladders on all fours before throwing her head up above the water and filling her lungs again. The snake then wrapped itself around her legs and one of her arms, making it practically impossible for her to change position. On top of that, in that state she had to use her only free arm as support to keep her head above the water as the way the snake's body was coiled around hers was pushing her back down. She looked up and saw Rena on the pier, her face flushed. When their eyes met the elf turned around as the only thing she could do to help Ara was not staring at her face, she knew she was too shy for that. Oberon, on the other hand, was sitting on the stair, as close to Ara as he could get without stepping in the water.

"W-why are you here?!"

He bent his neck to the right.

"I mean, why so close?!"

"You shouldn't raise your voice so much" he replied.

The angle at which the snake was penetrating her hadn't changed much due to that part of its body sticking to hers, but as she spoke -almost shouted- it apparently got curious and moved its head right above hers. For a brief moment it stared at Oberon, then moved its gaze to Ara as its tongues started running over her ears and neck. The only reason she managed to not moan was that the snake wasn't really thrusting, but things kept piling on top of each other, especially when two of its tongues reached her breasts and started teasing her nipples again. Having to hold herself up made her less focused on the stimulation, something she wasn't too happy with, though she didn't want to admit that last bit to herself. Without her realizing it she started coiling her tails around the snake. She had no idea how much time had passed but she knew her second orgasm was -finally- approaching, the slugging but constant motion slowly getting her off. Thankfully, the snake bit down again on her back, giving her the push she didn't want to admit to have been waiting for. Unlike nearly every other orgasm she had had, that one was incredibly tender, pleasure spreading like a calm, warm wave from deep within her all the way to her fingertips, and instead of coming in separate surges it stayed constant, the strong but gentle feeling lingering as her tails clinged to the snake. She lowered her face to avoid Oberon's gaze and buried her mouth underwater to drown her voice since.

While far less violent than the others, that orgasm was also lasting longer, and her body started to shake as the pleasure kept building up, the lingering feeling getting harder and harder to deal with. Ara brought her mouth back up to take long breaths, and while she did feel her orgasm starting to fade, it took several more minutes for the pleasure to get back to a manageable intensity. The first thing she noticed then was that one of her tails had disappeared. The second one was that she had moved her free hand to her breasts to grope herself, and Oberon was holding her up above the surface of the water. When she noticed it she quickly moved her arm back to supporting her own weight and averted her gaze, Oberon moving his hand away after confirming she lo longer needed him to hold her up.

Given the temperature of the water, at that point her excitement was probably the only thing keeping her body warm.

The snake then uncoiled itself from her and moved around without pulling out of Ara, who got turned around again as the snake ran itself around her. While it didn't use its whole body -it was too long for that- it still coiled around her enough to effectively prevent any kind of movement on her side, and she found herself half lying and half sitting on the stair without actually touching it as the snake's body was covering her body almost completely, the main exceptions being her tails and head. For a few seconds she ended up completely below the surface of the lake again, but then it pushed itself -and by extension her- up and brought her to an upper step before closing its mouth on her shoulder, back and chest, putting more strength than before into it.

"Do you want something to eat?" Oberon asked then.

"What?" she replied, completely taken aback by that.

"Usually you have dinner at this hour, but it's still going to be a while before you're done here. Unless you want to skip it again"

"N-no, th... no" she replied. Eating while doing that... the thought felt weird, though maybe that was just her. That said, now that he mentioned it really had gotten late, and she was a bit hungry.

As for Rena, she had moved her gaze back on Ara. In truth she didn't think she really needed to keep watching, Oberon was better suited for that as the animals didn't mind the presence of a machine. Were the elf -on anyone else- to get close during mating instead she'd have angered them, greatly even depending on the species.

Ara, for her part, would have been more than happy to end it there, but Oberon said they weren't done, and in truth she already knew that as the snake hadn't yet... well, that. It adjusted its body a bit around her, then its tongues wrapped around her as well and she felt its members swelling again.

"W-wait a moment..."

While the size didn't increase as much as she had feared, it still grew enough to be uncomfortable. As for the one in her butt, she felt it pushing against her insides even more, almost painfully. The snake then started actually moving back and forth, thrusting inside of her. And while the motion was relatively slow, compared to the previous speed it still was three or four times faster. Ara felt both its members began pulsating within the next two minutes, and at the same time the snake opened its mouth, its teeth leaving Ara's skin. Shortly after she felt its seed being slowly, very slowly released inside of her. Maybe because the snake's body was cold, its sperm felt particularly hot. And while at that point she had sort of gotten used to it, that only applied to her front. She had neved experienced it anally, and... surprisingly, she almost couldn't tell the snake was ejaculating inside her butt as well. She couldn't really feel its seed in her rear.

At first at least. It kept moving back and forth, pulsating and releasing its sperm deep within her, probably even a bit too deep, and as time went on Ara could feel her insides getting more and more covered in it, the added lubrification being both good and bad as it also let the snake speed up a bit. Once again she could feel pleasure building up inside her, with a lot less tenderness than the previous time. And then the snake slid two of its tongues inside her mouth, one coiling around her own while the other ran around as if to savor her saliva. She tried to close her hands -dig her fingernails in her own flesh-, but its body was in the way. She did have two full orgasms already so she wasn't really sure she wanted a third one, but having an half climax would have probably been worse, and of course the current situation seemed to be leading exactly to that.

As a matter of fact, she felt her orgasm drawing near, but biting her lips would have meant biting the snake's tongues as well and that felt like a really, really bad idea. On the other hand, all the small holes left by its sharp, thin teeth still kind of hurt, if only a bit. When her climax finally arrived, Ara felt an odd mixture of fulfillment and insatisfaction. The snake was starting to coil around her harder, and that together with the wounds -that's quite an exaggeration but still- left from its bites were sort of pushing her over the edge and sort of not, as if she was standing on a rope and kept losing her balance while never actually falling down. Having to keep her mouth open, she couldn't control her moans, which reflected her state, getting now more and now less loud. She could still feel it pulsating within her as it moved back and forth, frustation mixing in with satisfaction, pleasure spreading through her body as the pain went from being enough to being too little apparently at random. It was... rather infuriating.

She threw her head back, and while Oberon being that close was still making her heart beat even faster, at least Rena seemed to have gone away, or at least out of her line of sight. Time went by, and the snake never stopped. At that point Ara's sensitivity had increased too much for her own good, and the constant alternation of satisfaction and insatisfaction, combined with the constant stimulation, was driving her crazy. To make things worse, the snake had been pushing itself against her more and more and she could feel her limbs going numb, though maybe that's because she'd been underwater for... how long? The sky mimicked the real one, and the sun was almost completely gone. On the bright side, she had gotten used to the anal penetration, and since both that and the front one weren't too rough she never really ran out of air, though her breaths were quick and ragged. The snake's seed had since long completely filled her insides and started overflowing.

Time went by, and the mating didn't end. At that point Ara was considering it more like a sort of torture, one worse than the denial she usually had to go through. After even more time, she didn't know how much, the snake suddenly hissed before letting go of her and quickly swimming away, disappearing in the now dark lake. A few moments later a strong, pungent odor hit her nose. She dragged herself out of the water, and Oberon helped her getting back on her feet and walk to the pier, and saw Rena holding two open vials with a green fluid inside. She then closed them both.

Ara's limbs felt numb, but not as much as they did after the session with that raven... lizard... thing. She looked down and saw the snake's sperm overflowing out of her. Actually, it had released so much it had actually covered part of her thighs as well, which made her face even redder than it already was.

"Do you want help?" Oberon asked Rena.

"No" she replied as she gave him the two vials and walked back to the small bag.

"Can you walk?" he then asked Ara.

"I... think so... maybe... no" she said. It was night, and she was starting to feel chilly. On top of that, she was exhausted. While the snake proved to be an overall gentler partner than the previous ones, the mating lasted probably twice as much, if not even more, and she was sure the only reason it ended was due to Rena and Oberon intervening.

And then he took her in his arms.

"W-wait a moment!"

"Helping you walk would be bothersome" he replied as he started going to the door.

Ara and Rena avoided making eye contact when they passed next to her, an awkward silence in the air. Once they had moved past her, the elf turned around and looked at Ara's tails -now only two-, the fur completely soaked. How in the world did Eve convince her to do something like that? She had every intention to get all the details about that as soon as she was done there. Ara knew those questions were coming, and the thought of having no way to avoid them made her really uneasy.

And then Ara's stomach growled.


	10. Its Limbs May Hold the Skills of a Master Puppeteer, but the Raw Strength of Youth is Long Spent

**Its Limbs May Hold the Skills of a Master Puppeteer, but the Raw Strength of Youth is Long Spent**

Without letting go of Ara, Oberon took the chastity belt out of the drawer, put it on her, then grabbed her clothes -before Ara could take them herself- and walked down the stairs, to the elevator and then to the bathroom. Compared to the water and to the snake, his body felt almost warm to the touch, and Ara tried to at least enjoy that without making him notice as he carried her. When she looked back she saw the trail of water left from her dripping tails. And from a certain something dropping from between her legs every now and then, and her face turned bright red upon seeing that. The swimsuit mostly kept it inside her, but given the amount it was only normal for it to overflow.

"I c... can take a bath by m-myself..." she said as he walked up to the bathtub, and in response he gently let her down. And her stomach growled again.

"I'll prepare dinner. Though given the time, calling it midnight snack would be more accurate" he told her before walking away, leaving the belt and the clothes there.

Ara opened the tap and got in without even taking the swimsuit off, waiting for the water to fill the tub. She then looked at herself. Her skin was red from the snake's scales running against it, and here and there she also had a few bruises. Then there were the teeth marks, and while they probably were at least an hundred, they'd have most likely disappeared in a few days at most. Then there was its seed. It usually took a couple of days for that to fade, but the feeling of fullnes it was giving her was particularly strong. On the bright side, her arousal had gone down considerably, and while the last hour -or however long it had been from when the snake coiled around her whole body to when it went away- had left her with a weird mix of frustration and satisfaction, she felt like she could easily get to the next session with ease.

 _... is it normal to think like this?_ she wondered. Maybe the situation she was in had started to change her thought process?

She closed the tap and relaxed in the warm water, the temperature helping her getting feeling back in her sore limbs. After a while Oberon walked in, carrying a tray in his hands with dinner on it. For one reason or another, neither of them spoke as he left it there and went away. Shortly after she got up, walked to it and started eating. Then she took off the swimsuit -it was full of tiny holes and she wasn't sure it was worth fixing it over buying a new one- and headed to the shower. Much to her surprise, Rena never came to ask her anything that night.

* * *

The next day Ara woke up particularly late, though given how things had gone the previous day that wasn't surprising. She looked at herself in a mirror. Her eyes and hair still hadn't gone back to their normal color, but only one tail was left, and she felt like it wouldn't have remained there for too long. She was feeling... rather normal, overall. When she walked to the kitchen she found Oberon already busy making lunch. As for Rena, she arrived shortly after. A quick greeting, a few minutes of avoiding her glances, then Ara sat down. While they did have a small casual chat during lunch, as soon as they were done eating the elf started asking questions.

"What's your situation and how did you end up like this, exactly?"

"W-well, I..." Ara started saying as she moved her gaze left and right.

And then, a bit hesitantly, she told her about the incident with the eggs and everything else. Except for the chastity belt and that morning with Oberon.

Once she had finished, Rena remained silent for a minute or so.

"... she even put a leash on you?!" she shouted after having processed all of that, her eyes on the choker.

"T-that..." Ara replied, startled by the sudden outburst "... when you put it that way it feels even worse..."

"You're right, sorry. What in the world is Eve thinking... "

"At least I don't think I'll get fired this time" Ara said, trying to make fun of her situation as she cracked a not-so-convincing smile.

"... let's just pretend you never said that"

"Let's"

"I hate to have to ask you this, but it might influence my work so... with which ones have you already... worked?"

"S-sure, I don't mind... alright, there was a really small slime, then the spiders, the snake from yesterday and a... oily thing covered in small slimy appendages, shaped somewhat like a blanket" Ara said, her face getting redder with every word as her mind recalled each and every event "And also, uh, a very large bug with a sort of trunk, and one resembling a mix between a lizard and a raven... of sort"

"You... sure work a lot..."

"Please don't make me think about it more than I already do"

"I don't know which one you were talking about at the end though"

"Oberon said it's new here"

"A new one?" the elf repeated as she moved her gaze to Oberon, who was sitting on a chair reading what seemed to be yet again the same book.

"I'll show it to you whenever you want" he said.

"... tomorrow. I already had something planned for today. And since we're already on the subject" she said as she turned back to Ara "Just to be sure about it, you do use protections right?"

"Protection? You mean..." she started replying as her face grew pale "Y-you're not saying I could get p-pregnant, right?"

"Why do you even think I meant... anyway, no. You do know that there is a chance of getting certain illnesses from doing what you... do, right?"

Ara's face lost even more color.

"W-what illnesses?"

"She's already vaccinated. And the choker does a daily checkup on her health state, were she to somehow still contract something we would know within twenty four hours"

"Oh, that's convenient" said Rena.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?! And when did I even get vaccinated in the first place?!" Ara nearly shouted at him.

"Even in the off change you got ill, here we can treat anything you could contract while doing your job. Since there isn't any real danger, I thought it wasn't worth mentioning it in the first place. As for the second question, I did it while you were sleeping"

"What?!"

"Like mistress, like servant I guess" commented Rena, her mind recalling some of Eve's old habits, before getting up "Now, if you excuse me, I have some work to do" she said as she left.

After a short silence, Ara spoke.

"... you didn't do anything else while I was sleeping, right?"

"Nothing else"

She wasn't sure whether she believed him or not.

* * *

A couple of days went by, during which Ara had gone almost completely back to normal, with only an eye and a small part of her hair still being respectively red and white. Oberon suggested her to keep her coat on that day, and so she did. As for Rena, she was with them in the elevator but she was headed to a different dome. Being a new entry, the raven guest was still in need of a complete check up, something she didn't manage to finish the previous day, and she wanted to get it done as soon as possible. The two of them got off at the eighth floor, while the elf kept going down. They walked to the first room. In the antchamber Ara saw hanging from the ceiling a few small, transparent sacks containing... was that jelly? Probably not. The color was similar to that of honey, and when she tried touching one -they were cold- she found out the consistency was similar too. That said the smell, while still being sweet, was completely different from both that of normal honey and of the one produced from that... tentacle-equipped blanket, or whatever it was.

After having taken off her chastity belt, they walked into the dome. For some reason, however, Oberon had taken the belt with him rather than leaving it there. When Ara questioned him about it, he simply replied that it needed a quick check up.

That room was a cave. It probably was as big as every other dome, but the lack of light made it hard to tell. Illumination was provided only by what seemed to be blue, bioluminescent algae growing on the rocky ground and on the stalagmites. There was water mostly everywhere but the level was low, barely reaching around Ara's ankles. Still enough to drench her shoes though. The light was enough to move around without bumping into anything, but it wasn't strong enough to see the ceiling, though she could still see the point of several stalactites of varying size. Then she smelled something, and recognized the same scent of the honey in the antchamber. She started following it as the source was probably where she had to go anyway, and the fact that Oberon said nothing as he walked behind her probably meant she was right.

After a short walking she started seeing something else in the cave. They were... single, thin, white threads hanging down from the ceiling and going all the way down to the ground, some ending below the water surface, others not. They were visibles mainly because the light painted them blue when they were close enough to the algae, which most likely meant there were a lot more than she was seeing around there. She tried to touch one. Surprisingly, it was rather warm and stung a little. Since she was wearing her coat which had long, large sleeves, she put an arm in front of herself as she kept walking to avoid ending up with one of those in her face. The scent was getting noticeably stronger, and the same went for the density of those threads. The surface of the cave was slighty inclined and the water now reached a bit higher on Ara's legs due to her moving downward, though not much.

Shortly after they reached what seemed to be an hole in the ground, completely submerged and large enough to easily fit a person inside. There was something in the water though. It was the same honey she had seen before entering -apparently it didn't mix with water, just like oil-, though it had a much stronger smell -so strong it was almost painful to her nostrils-, and there was a small flow of it coming down from the ceiling right to the middle of the pond. On closer look, the circumference of the hole was surronded by the white threads. Ara mentally prepared herself to whatever was about to happen and stepped forward, right on the edge of the hole in the ground, moving around the threads with her arms. They still stung a bit through her sleeves, which rather surprised her. Given how weakly she had felt the first sting, she had thought her coat to be enough to block them.

Then something fell down on her as the flow of honey stopped. She was expecting something like that, but when she realized that she had been enveloped in jellyfish tentacles panick overrode her as she had been stung once by a normal-sized one in the past and touching one that large had to be horrible. After a brief moment she realized it actually wasn't. Or rather, the tentacles made her whole skin feel really itchy, they stung a bit all over -luckily she had managed to cover her face in time- and she had to move them aside to make room for breathing, but normal jellyfishes were way worse than that to touch. And unlike with the normal ones, she could feel what probably were muscles within those too, which would explain why she felt as if they were running all around her as they pushed against her skin, albeith rather weakly. Actually, given they were transparent, it was a somewhat unsettling sight, muscular fibers and veins being mostly in plain sight.

She looked around looking for Oberon, just to make sure he was there. She saw him leaning against a nearby stalagmite with the belt still in his hands, which sort of reassured her. Then her head went spinning. She lost her balance as everything started moving around her, but she still managed to fall backwards instead of forward, ending up hitting her rear on the hard ground rather than diving into the water. Her body started feeling numb. No, not that. Rather, it was rapidly getting sluggish and unresponsive, as if she were very tired. The tentacles then moved back up, slowly, giving off the impression of being tired themselves. A moment or so later, a few dozens of thin white threads fell down on Ara, latching to her skin. They weren't like the previous ones though, they felt more like silk, and were sticky but only at their end, which was covered with that scented substance. They were then pulled up, bringing her to her feet by extension.

"H-hey..."

What worried Ara the most was probably how relaxed she was. Not to say that she was really calm, but compared to the other times she was definitively less agitated. She wondered if she was simply getting used to it or if there was something else behind it. In a certan sense she was hoping for the latter option to be the right one. Then she saw something large moving down from the ceiling, slowly. As it came closer to the glowing algae she saw it was another spider, albeith larger than the previous one. ... actually, no. That wasn't really a spider. It had the eyes, the head and the general body shape of one, sure, but it had dozens and dozens of short legs -at most half the length of Ara's forearms each and rather thinner than that- on its back. Its abdomen was covered by what strongly resembled the hood of a jellyfish, and underneath it were the tentacles which had fallen down on her earlier, now looking like a sort of drape behind it. On top of that, she could see probably an hundred or more of those thin threads she had bumped into on her way there linked to its cape and headed everywhere along the ceiling. As for the strings latched to her body, those seemed to go to the limbs on its back. Its fangs were oddly large and covered in fur, somewhat resembling a beard. She couldn't see its abdomen at the moment though. Overall it was around as large as a big horse. Without considering the tentacles, that is. Most of its body was transparent, with only the spider-like part not being see-through.

As it kept slowly moving down, Ara couldn't help but think of an old man going down the stairs due to its somewhat sluggish motion. Which was actually pretty accurate, as that spider was considerably old and was moving down along a web made with the main purpose of going back and forth from slighty above the ground to the ceiling. It stopped when its legs reached the height of Ara's head and then it pulled her up, the limbs on its back pulling the threads to make her rest her feet on the web. The feeling of being moved around like a doll was quite unpleasant, but with her body as weak as it was she couldn't really do much about it. The fact that most of those threads were actually attached to her clothes rather than her skin also made it rather awkward. The spider moved closer to her and she instinctively leaned back. The jellyfish spider -that's what it was?- fumbled around a bit with the threads, until it somehow managed to get her coat off. Ara blinked, and she felt more strings latching to her skin to replace those that were linked to the now removed piece of clothing. She actually had no idea how the spider was doing it, which was rather... scary.

As he tinkered with the chastity belt, Oberon wondered if she had realized that her hair and eyes had completely changed color.

Ara's position was rather unnerving, in that her feet were resting on a web she could hardly see and at the same time she was hanging from equally visible threads sticking to her skin and clothes, with no strength in her limbs as she was moved around a bit like a doll. To add to that, the honey used to make the wire was making her skin itchy.

The spider moved around a bit, sluggishly, as if to take a better look at her. She noticed it was missing a few eyes. Her arms were raised above her head as she was made to turn around a few times. While she wasn't high up enough for an eventual fall to be of much concern, the feeling of instability wasn't exactly pleasant. Then her hands were pushed against her dress, as if the spider was trying to figure out what it was using her hands instead of his limbs. More threads latched to her, especially to her fingers, some even coming from below her somehow, and her arms started groping herself, in a rather awkward way. As the spider apparently figured out that wasn't her skin, he made her ran her finges up and down along her dress until it managed to make her fingers slide underneath it and pulled it down. Given how he was moving her, however, it only managed to move it down enough to reveal her bra, and it seemed to have no clue how to take it off.

"I feel like a doll..." she commented, not too pleased by the situation. The lack of tails and ears meant she wasnt' too agitated -or excited- yet, which is probably why she could keep her composure like that, unlike during most of the other sessions.

The spider leaned in closer while still keeping some distance, intrigued by the new texture on her skin -that is to say, her undergarment-, and made her fondle herself again. As weird as that was, however, Ara was more troubled by the itching which was spreading all over her skin and which she couldn't scratch. Maybe she couldn't have done so even without the strings moving her body in her stead since her limbs felt weaker than ever, but still. Then her hands started pulling against her bra, the spider clearly recognizing it not being a part of her but having no clue what it was or how to take it off. For a moment she found herself amazed by how well it was piloting her, then she remembered the situation she was in. After a short while the spider simply made her rip her own bra off, not the best feeling, revealing her chest. Then, as if to make sure they weren't removable as well, it moved her hands to her nipples.

She hadn't really expected that -to her it seemed obvious they weren't clothes and getting into the mind of her... partners wasn't her forte-, and so she hadn't readied herself for it.

The puppeteer noticed she reacted to that, and placed her hands on her breasts before focusing on her fingers, moving them to fondle and pinch her nipples, which in response got harder. In a certain way that was worse than usual, since it looked like she was putting on a show. As she realized this her cheeks, which were already a bit flushed, started turning redder. The jellyfish then made her squeeze her breasts to take a better look at her nipples, noticing they were now erect. And apparently it also became curious about the consistency of her chest as it made her grope herself harder, as if to see how squishy they were -or weren't-.

"Would you stop this?" she asked. She knew it was pointless to say so, but she just had to do something to shake off the feeling of being a puppet.

Then it made her turn around enough to look at her from the side rather than frontally, which also reinforced the feeling of partially floating she had. It made her turn on herself a couple of times until she went back to facing it. Truth be told, Ara was getting rather impatient. No way she'd have admitted that thought, especially to herself. Her hands were then moved to her skirt, and this time the jellyfish spider managed to get it off rather quickly. As it slid off her legs, it ended up hanging on a thread below her feet.

 _Come on..._ she thought, not really sure what she meant with that herself.

The cold air of the cave against her privates made her realize she was getting wet, which in turn made her aware that her breath was, if only a tiny bit, ragged. She was made to turn around again, with her back facing the jellyfish, and being unable to see it made her quite uneasy. Though the only thing it had done so far was moving her around using the short limbs on its back. It made her spread her legs a bit, and she actually ended with her left foot hanging in the air, with nothing to rest on. Then it made her lean forward a bit before slapping her hands on her rear, making her shriek a bit in surprise.

"H-hey now, what?!"

The spider could tell through her hands that her butt felt different from her chest, and had her grope it. To add to that, her previous scream seemed to have amused it and it made her spank herself a few more times, with more strength when she started to actively hold her voice in. An onlooker would have thought she was putting herself on display for a giant jellyfish hybrid thing, and while the only one there beside herself and said spider was Oberon, the thought was enough to make her more embarassed than she already was. As her hands hit her butt again she felt her fox ears growing on her head. She refused to think about what that really meant. The spider then seemed to notice that her pantyhose wasn't one and the same with her skin and started fumbling with it, and after a couple of minutes it managed to pull it down enough to leave her butt exposed, ripping it a bit in the process. While in that position she couldn't properly see the jellyfish, she could still tell it had gotten a bit closer.

As her ears twitched, her puppeteer moved her hands between her legs, and felt her wetness with her fingers. Curious, the spider made her turn back around before making her sit on the air, in front of itself. While there really were a few threads she was resting on, most of her weight was still supported by the same wires that moved her around. Her legs were spread apart, slightly widening the rips in her pantyhose in the process. The sound left the spider a bit startled, but just for a moment. He made her move her hands to her entance and run her fingers over it, apparently intrigued by her reactions, her face turning even more red, her breaths getting less regular. Then, out of curiosity, it made her pinch her clit. As her voice escaped her mouth, the jellyfish started making her play with it, causing her to grit her teeth. In response to that, several more threads latched to her jaw to force it open. It liked the sound of her voice, apparently. As she still had some strength there, it took the creature more effort than moving her limbs did, but it still managed to do so rather easily.

As one hand was made to continuously tease her lower parts, Ara had her other one brought to her face, with three fingers being slid inside her mouth. Too deep at that, and when she started coughing the spider pulled them back out a bit before trying to make them run on the inner side of her cheeks. It was rather weird, as she could feel some of the threads moving her fingers pushing against her lips as well. That said, the other hand was far more troublesome. Pleasure kept building in her privates, until it started spreading through her whole body, causing her strengthless limbs to shiver as the uncomplete climax ran through her system, only to fade rather quickly. Trying to regulate her breath -which wasn't that easy with her own hand showed in her mouth- she was rather relieved to see that the spider had stopped moving her fingers. It then brought both of her hands to her entrance, managed to make her grab her labia and spread them open.

"S-stop that..." she said, still getting over her frustrating orgasm, her cheeks as red as they could get.

The creature kept staring between her legs for a short while, then it noticed something. That is, Ara's first tail, which was... not really waving, as it kept hitting against threads whichever way it went. She was made to turn her back to it again as her hands started feeling up the base of her tail, sending weak shivers up her spine. She then noticed the itching on her skin had mostly disappeared, save for her hands, her chest, her butt and -mainly- her crotch. There the feeling had actually gotten stronger, making her situation more troublesome to deal with. Then the spider had her bend forward, leaning on nothing once more, then spread her entrance open again with one hand and made her slide her fingers inside, wet sounds reaching her ears. That said, the jellyfish wasn't really pleasuring her, rather it was inspecting her body, and due to how it moved her around it couldn't get much done inside her. She was feeling the threads as much as her fingers inside her. In a certain way it reminded her of the first time she masturbated, as in she didn't really know how to do it and moved her fingers around without a clue. It was more frustrating than anything else.

Ara then felt her other hand running over her skin, first to her tail, then to her butt, and then the spider had her put a finger inside there as well. That said, she had had a bad feeling about that hand moving that way and, expecting something like that, had braced herself for it. And while saying she showed no reactions would be lying, she managed to keep what composure she still had up, at least enough to make the creature lose interest in that. Instead, it made her turn around once more and, seeing it wasn't getting as much of a reaction as before, it moved one of her hands back to her chest to play with her nipples, while having her poke at her own clit with the thumb of the hand playing with her entrance.

Ara had started sweating, and the spider's control -somewhat awkward at first- had been getting more precise, as it seemed to be getting a grasp on how to make her touch herself to get the most out of her reactions. Between a ragged breath and the other she instinctively tried to bite her lips, but her jaw was still being held open. Not wide open, but still enough to not let her do that, and the spider seemed to take a look at her salivating face every now and then. As the feelings kept building up, mainly in her clit but also in her breasts, her body started shivering weakly, until the pleasure expanded to the rest of her body. She didn't arch her back mainly because the threads didn't let her. Ara tried to dig her nails in her skin, but the spider seemed to take that as her trying to break free and moved her hands away from her body, interrupting her already incomplete orgasm midway. She managed to hold a groan in at the last minute. The same couldn't really be said for her previous moans though.

The spider then looked at new tail -the second one- for a short while before climbing on the web, but only with his four frontal legs. Then, once its body was inclined enough, it pushed itself back, and it ended up lying on its back on its own threads. It... basically lyed down on its back, which probably wasn't how it mated with females of its kind. Had she not been in those conditions, Ara would have wondered how she hadn't felt a single pull from the strings during that since they were connected to its limbs. But given her current state, the thought didn't really cross her mind as she was made to walk forward. Though "walk" probably wasn't the right term as roughly every other step had her rest one of her feet on the empty air. As she moved forward, she saw that the lower half of its body was covered in small jellyfish-like tentacles, albeith much, much smaller than those protuding from its abdomen.

Ara then climbed up a few threads which formed a sort of ladder and got on top of the spider's body. It felt... surprisingly soft, definitively more than she had expected. It moved her to its torax, on top of a small slit which opened as Ara sat down on it, her legs spread open, her tails trying to wave behind her. She then felt its member entering her, at an odd angle which, aside from hitting her in an unusual spot, also made it quite hard for her to see it in that position. That said, while it had a somewhat peculiar shape, it didn't feel particularly weird. At least compared to others she had had since she got that job. She noticed that it was no longer pulling on her jaw, meaning she could bite her lips now if she wanted.

Finally, the jellyfish started moving her up and down along its member, at first somewhat slowly but quickly increasing the speed. Then her hands were brought to gwe breasts and clit. With a part of her insides she wasn't used to having stimulated being hit against directly over and over and her hands fondling and stimulating herself, she could feel her orgasm getting closer and closer, her teeth pushing more and more against her lips as the pleasure kept building up. Then, suddenly, the creature released its seed inside her. And while it was definitively warm and particularly sticky, the quantity was rather small. Right after that, the spider stopped moving Ara. She remained there, a bit confused, for a minute. Then two. Then three, its member slowly sliding out of her in the meanwhile. And then she tried to move on her own, but her body still felt weak and she barely managed to shake her hips a bit. Which was enough for something else, that is to say, to make her partner emit a low, somewhat hissing sound before pulling her up and leaving her hanging in the air. Then it... fell asleep? And it seemed to start salivating too, the honeylike substance slowly drooling out of its mouth.

"A... are you... kidding me... ?"

Shortly after that Oberon climbed up the threads and reached Ara, one of his bladed tonfas in hand.

"I'd say you're done for today"

"That's... this... what?"

"I take it you were hoping for a longer session?"

"O-of course not! I mean... just, it seems weird..."

"It's an old exemplar, you shouldn't expect much stamina from him" he said as he started cutting the wires holding her up.

"But... just..."

He then grabbed her waist before cutting the last ones off, then brought her back to the floor. He left her lying against a wall, and she averted her gaze when he put the chastity belt back on her -she thought she felt a small sting on her sides as he did so, but maybe it was just her impression- before pulling her somewhat torn pantyhose up and her dress down, recovering her skirt and putting it back on her. Then he picked up her coat and carried her out. She tried to not think about the intense tingling between her legs as she was brought to the bathroom, where he put her on a chair and started pulling away the pieces of threads still latched to her skin, the honey still sticking to her body and clothes.

"I'll bring you something to help your limbs recover" he said once he had finished.

"S-say, Oberon..." she called out before he reached the door "How... how much exactly does it c... c..."

He bent his neck a bit to the right. He had an idea about what she wanted to ask, but decided to keep it to himself.

"How... n-nevermind..." she said then. She couldn't bring herself to ask him how much it costed to take the belt off, as in that situation that would have been the same as saying she wanted to masturbate.

He stared for a few seconds at her troubled, embarassed expression before leaving. Once he had closed the door behind him, she let out a long, exasperated groan. Soon after he came back with a small bottle in hand. Then he started undressing her.

"W-wait, what are you... ?"

"This needs to be applied to your skin" he replied before she could finish her sentence "Otherwise it will take you more than twenty hours to recover"

"But..."

He took all of her clothes off, left them on the chair and placed her on a stool, then started thoroughly smearing the content of the bottle on her skin. It felt a bit like soap, but colder. Actually, that was due to his hands. For the next ten or so minutes, Ara wished to dig an hole in the ground and bury herself in it out of embarassment. On the bright side, Oberon remained extremely... professional, and even when he reached her breasts, her butt or even the base of her tail he simply smeared the soap-like substance on her rather than groping her. And since she still had the chastity belt on at least her entrance was spared from that.

"You should be able to start moving within thirty minutes" he said as he got up and went to wash his hands "Once you can you should take a shower or a bath. It's rather early for dinner, so you can take your time"

Then he walked out, leaving Ara to her embarassed silence. Once he had closed the door behind himself, he looked at his hand.

 _That was... close... ?_ he wondered.


	11. Awkward Education

**Awkward Education  
**

Later, the same day, Rena knocked on the door of the bathroom.

"Ara, are you still there?" she asked as she opened the door.

The elf found her half-asleep in the bathtub, lying on its edge, water filling it to the brim. After a few -a lot of few- moments Ara noticed someone had walked in and snapped back to complete awakeness, her ears twitching a couple of times.

"Oh, uh, hi Rena" she said.

"Are you alright? Since, you know, that"

"I've had worse experiences, d-don't worry about that"

 _That's now how you make someone not worry_ she thought.

Ara sounded a bit nervous, but the elf guessed it was due to her work. She had a brief talk with Oberon earlier and he told her how things went, but she still wanted to hear that Ara was fine from Ara herself, just to be sure.

"Oberon is about to prepare dinner" she then said as she started undressing.

Ara gulped. Were Rena to get into the bathtub, she'd have surely seen the chastity belt.

"Maybe it's better if you get out, or I doubt you'll manage to dry your tails before dinner. And..." she commented while looking at Ara's clothes "... where are your panties?"

"They tore! During the, uh, the session!" she almost shouted, startling Rena.

"Well... alright then..."

It seemed a bit weird that Oberon hadn't told her about it, since he described her almost every little detail of the scene. Or rather that's what he was going to do, but she did interrupt him when she realized he was going for a complete and accurate description instead of a summary. Then, much to Ara's relief, she headed to the shower. Shortly after she had gotten in, Ara stood up, walked out of the bathtub and quickly put on her bathrobe. It wasn't too comfortable since there was no hole for her tails, in all honesty. She then dried herself, at least enough to not leave too many droplets behind her as she walked out of the bathroom and to the kitchen. As Rena had said, Oberon was there.

"Do you need something?" he asked.

"I'd have a favor to ask you"

"I'm listening"

"Could you not talk about the belt to Rena?"

She really wasn't sure he'd mention it to her, but she wasn't sure he he wouldn't do it either.

"I can"

"Thanks" she replied as she took a breath of relief.

"Since you're already here" he said then "Do you want to try making dinner? You asked me to teach you but I have done nothing in that regard so far"

"Oh, well... sure"

* * *

A while later, Rena walked into the kitchen while holding her nose close with one hand.

"Is something bur... nin... ... Ara?" she asked as she looked at the sorry state the kitchen top was in, with remnants of what probably used to be food scattered everywhere.

"I'm sorry..." she said to both her and Oberon, her head, tails and ears all lowered.

"I'm amazed" he commented "Probably for the wrong reasons though"

"Ugh..."

Somewhat hesitantly, Rena sat down. She wasn't sure she was going to eat anything -everyone in their group knew of Ara's cooking skills- and as her mind tried to remember what was in the fridge -for a late snack- Oberon put two dishes in front of her. One was a... well, one was her dinner. The other was probably supposed to be the same thing, only it was clear who was behind that dish. Had anyone else done that, Rena would have at least looked at them the wrong way for putting her in that situation, but given her opinion of Oberon she considered getting angry at him meaningless. As for Ara, she had two plates in front of her as well. Oberon too, surprisingly.

"So, let's eat" Rena said, hiding her nervousness as she took a bite out of Ara's dish.

Next thing she knew was that she had emptied a bottle of water and took a literal handful of sugar in her mouth to try and neuter the taste.

"I'm sorry Ara" she said after a short while, almost crying due to the excessively spicy aftertaste "But I... don't think I can eat this" she told her before grabbing another bottle of water.

"D-don't worry, I know I'm not good at this..." she replied, a bit depressed.

As for Ara herself, she did eat what she had cooked, though her face clearly showed she didn't really like the taste. Oberon, on his part, finished both the one he had made and Ara's, a neutral expression on his face.

"This might be... harder than I had first thought" he commented.

Ara sighed. Twice.

"So, the food distracted me but... why are you still in your bathrobe?" the elf asked then.

"... eh?"

She looked down and noticed she had forgotten to change into her clothes. On top of that, the belt of the robe had come loose, leaving her chest almost exposed.

"Ah... ah..."

Then she sprinted away to the bathroom to get dressed.

 _This is so like Ara_ Rena thought, happy to see that she hadn't changed.

* * *

The next day went by uneventfully. With nothing else to do, Ara spent her afternoons taking cooking lessons -when Oberon didn't have other commitments- though Rena was thanfully spared from sampling the results of her trials and errors. Mostly errors. One of the first things Oberon did was a check on Ara's taste buds because he had an hard time believing someone could mess up a dish's taste so much without some sort of physical problem, but apparently there was nothing wrong with them. He was quite amazed at how easily she could eat food she knew and recognized to taste bad. The most noticeable difference, anyway, was that he had started eating with them, if only to test Ara's progress. It left the other two residents of the menagerie a bit startled at first -especially Rena- but they got used to it quickly enough. In the morning and after dinner Ara spent some time searching for the plug, but apparently she had lost is as she couldn't find it anywhere and she couldn't bring herself to ask Oberon. Had she not tried anal masturbation -with overall disappointing results- she would have probably lost more than just one tail, and she wouldn't even have bashed her head against the wall for having done that in the first place. The following day, at lunch, Oberon gave her a red pill -or candy?- right before lunch.

"What's this?"

"A tonic. It will help with the cold"

"What cold?"

"During today's session. It's better if you take it before eating"

"... alright..."

She gulped it down. It tasted... it really didn't taste like anything. Then she asked something.

"S... say, about the plug..."

"You want another?"

"N-no!"

A few seconds later Rena opened the door and walked in.

"What were you talking about?" she asked.

"Equipment" Oberon replied. The elf looked at Ara, a bit confused, but she simply averted her gaze, her cheeks somewhat red, her tail waving a bit behind her.

"Equipment, you say..."

Ara's expression persuaded her to drop the topic. Later, after lunch, the three of them went to the elevator, and from there to the fourth room of the seventh floor. Hanging on the door, however, were two heavy, white overcoats, long enough to cover someone all the way to the knees.

"Could you go ahead and see if they're all in the den?" Oberon asked Rena while she was putting one of the coats on.

"Sure" she replied before going, leaving them behind.

""All"?" Ara asked.

He handed her the other coat. As for himself, insensitivity to cold was one of the perks of not being made of flesh. And having an anti-freezing system incorporated.

"All"

Ara wondered if he had sent Rena off ahead because of her request about the belt. They walked into the antechamber, which was -as expected- cold, the kind of temperature one would expect in autumn, and there were quite a few fridges there. As usual, he handed her the key and she took off the belt. Truth be told, at first she had thought about going back out to remove it since undressing there would have been somewhat chilling, but apparently the tonic was more effective than she had expected, to the point she was almost wondering if she really had to keep the overcoat on. Her coat would have probably been enough, but she decided to keep both on anyway at the moment. Then, after having put the belt away and before walking in, he handed her something else. A gag, one made to muffle sounds. Ara froze for a moment.

"... do I... really have to?"

"No, if you can keep your voice down. To make sure you don't scare the little ones. That might be dangerous"

Ara thought about it for a short while, then took it in her hands while sighing.

"So... do you mind giving me any sort of information about what's behind that door?"

A brief silent.

"I... guess I do, after all"

"What?"

"We should get going, or Rena might wonder why we're taking so long"

"We... I think we need to talk about this later" she said before unwillingly putting the gag on. She could breathe just fine through it, but when she tried to say something -just to test it- her voice turned out to be hardly audible, as if she was whispering softly.

And then they walked into the dome, finding themselves in what strongly resembled a tundra, covered for the most part in snow. Rather than a flat land, however, the place was an hill. They started walking, following Rena's -hardly visible- footprints in the thin snow, and soon after they reached the elf, who was also walking towards them.

"So?"

"They're there"

Then Rena looked at Ara.

"... why are you gagged?" she asked, but after thinking about it for a few moments she took that back by adding "... actually, I think I know"

Ara seemed to let out a small sigh, though it was hard to tell what that muffled sound really was. Then they walked for a while more, until they reached an hole on the side of the hill, near the top. It was large enough for a person to get in, but only if crouching.

"I'll... wait somewhere else" Rena said. She wasn't sure she wanted to leave Ara there by herself -sort of- but she knew her presence wouldn't have made things easier for her either.

They waited for the elf to have gone some distance, then Ara turned to the hole.

"It's bigger on the inside" Oberon told Ara. That was a relief.

She took a long, deep breath, then walked in, followed by Oberon. The inside was indeed larger, and surprisingly so. Ara opened her coat as it felt warmer there than it did outside. The size was around that of a small room, with the right half of it -including the entrance- being on a lower level than the rest, the height difference being enough to sit on it rather comfortably, though it was less than half the height of a normal chair. There was a rather large pile of snow in a corner, and the red stains on it -as well as the smell- probably meant either dinner or what was left of lunch was hidden there. And then there were them. The general shape was that of a feline, and the largest one was around as big as a tiger, a rather small one at that. It had six blue eyes, silvery fur with light blue shades here and there, a tail which split in two at half of its length, large ears and a fang noticeably larger than the others on each pawn. And six legs. Lastly, its fur seemed to be covered in a spiky layer of ice, though Ara wouldn't have bet on that really being ice. The other two looked mostly the same, the main difference being that they were far smaller, not to the point of being cubs but still. Assuming the big one was an adult, that is.

 _They're... cute..._ Ara thought while looking at the smaller ones.

The two of them hid behind the larger one, who locked its gaze on her while Oberon sat down near the entrance. The feline then slowly approached, his steps completely silent. She moved a bit to the side and sat on the drop -without realizing that the only reason her panties weren't in plain sight in that position was that she wasn't wearing them in the first place- while the creature slowly approached, the two smaller ones keeping their distance on the other end of the den. The feline then started smelling the air as it kept getting closer, until it reached Ara and started smelling her legs, two eyes locked on her upper half while the other four gazed at where it was smelling her. Carefully, it placed a pawn on her ankle, and Ara felt the softness of its pads on her skin. Thankfully she didn't feel its claws. The feline then moved its head up along her leg, his three pair of eyes moving independently over her body as it did so. Resting two of its paws on her knees, it inched forward, almost pushing its nose against her choker, and then licked her neck once. Twice, actually. Ara leaned back a little, placing her hands behind her to support herself.

After that its gaze moved to her tail, which was waving softly, and her ears. It walked in circles around her a few times before stopping behind her. She turned her head around to keep the feline in sight, but given that it was -most likely- being cautious due to the presence of the younger ones, she thought it'd be better not to move around too much. When it opened its mouth Ara worried that it was about to bite her, but it instead breathed over her hand. That is, it breathed frost apparently, as she felt a cold breeze despite the tonic. In a few moments a layer of ice formed over the back of her hand, quickly spreading to her fingers and wrist as it grew thicker, not by much but still thicker. Ara managed to keep herself from instinctively moving her hand away -she was afraid of what the older one might do were she to somehow scare the little ones- but forgot about her voice. Not that it really mattered, as the gag turned it to a barely audible sound. Knowing what was about to happen, Ara moved her other hand in order to be in a more comfortable position before the feline froze that one in place too. She groaned, or at least she tried.

As the feline moved back in front of her, she tried to move her hands. She probably could have broken the ice if she really tried, but she was pretty sure that wouldn't have been a smart move. It went to smell her again, then moved its face in front of hers and... apparently started breathing on her face, though as soon as it did so Oberon snapped his fingers two or three times. The creature turned to him, and saw him holding one of his bladed tonfas, still sitting against the wall. He then hit his fingers against the blade a couple of times. The feline emitted a low hiss, but refrained from freezing Ara's face after that. Instead it placed its paws on her knees to push her legs a bit to the side and smell her chest, before... patting her breasts with another paw? It then started palpating her, intrigued by the consistence. Ara blushed a bit, especially when the feline cut open her dress to see if it was simply another layer of skin or not -it did feel different than her hands after all. Though it looked at Oberon for a couple of seconds before doing so.

It then bit softly on her right breast a couple of times, and when it pulled back it accidentaly pulled on her bra with its fangs. As a result, it started toying with it until it tore some of it off and removed what was left. Ara's tail started moving with a bit more intensity. Her exposed chest didn't feel exactly warm, but saying it was cold would have been an overstatement as well. That tonic did wonders. Actually, she was starting to sweat a bit. Maybe she should have taken the overcoat off. And the coat too? The feline then focused on her nipples and poked them with its paws a bit before starting to lick them, its warm tongue feeling almost like sandpaper against her bare skin. All things considered, the gag made it way easier for her to hold her voice back -or rather, to not be heard- so there was something good about that.

As her ears started twitching a bit, the feline stood on its back legs and started playing with her ears as if to see wheter they were different from its or not. That sort of troubled Ara, especially when it leaned on her chest with one of its other paws and noticed that touching her breasts caused her ears to shiver a bit. It was hard to notice given the peculiar gag, but her breaths were getting a bit ragged. After a relatively short while it seemed to get bored of it though, and got back on all six before smelling her again. This time, however, its muzzle didn't move toward her neck. Instead it went the opposite direction, which is to say, to her crotch. At that point Ara realized how she was sitting and what she wasn't wearing, which caused her face to turn bright red. She raised her gaze for a brief moment. From where he was sitting, Oberon couldn't see her privates right? She really wasn't sure, though the feline quickly brought her attention back to it by pushing its face under her short skirt.

As it pushed her skirt back simply by moving its head forward, the cold air made her notice her own wetness. The creature sniffed her entrance a couple of times, then ran its tongue over it once. If not for the gag, Ara would have probably screamed. She had already felt its tongue over her skin and knew it was like sandpaper, but she had underestimated how intense it would have felt on her entrance. Surprisingly enough, it hardly caused her any pain, which was actually a sort of problem. The feline moved its head back a bit and... apparently gulped down some of her juices. Ara looked at it, rather surprised, then the creature started licking her again. She braced herself, but when the tongue reached her clit she almost jumped, a sudden burst of pleasure hitting her all at once. The creature seemed to be taken aback by her reaction, and decided to... well, lock her down better. First it walked behind her to breath more ice on her hands, then it held her legs in place as it took a few deep breaths on her ankles, one at a time, securing her in place. It also toyed for a very brief moment with Ara's tail.

Then it placed its tongue over her privates again. She tried to close her legs, but with her ankles in that condition she couldn't really move them around that much. And then it started licking her, the overbearing feeling hitting her wave after wave and getting stronger as its tongue kept tearing away her pantyhose, eventually opening an hole in it, the growing stimulus making her shiver, her tails waving almost wildly as her orgasm grew closer and closer, until it exploded, her back arching as much as possible as pleasure temporarily took over her, her mind going blank for a brief moment. To make things worse, the feline actually started licking her faster as she was letting out more fluids, which caused her climax to be around half a minute longer, maybe even more. Then, thankfully, it stopped. As Ara started catching her breath, her now two tails resting on the ice behind her as her ears twitched slightly, she thought about how much she would have liked it for that oversized cat to dig its claws in her thighs -just a tiny bit- while licking her. As usual, she quickly drove that thought away.

Then the feline did something unexpected. It went behind her and started scratching against the ice covering her hands, until it had removed most of it. She actually felt its claws graze her skin a few times. Rather perplexed by that, Ara remained almost still for a few seconds. Then the icy cat took her right hand in its mouth and pulled it, making her fall on her back. Its fangs did sink a bit in her flesh, but just enough to make her feel it, not enough to be of any real concern. It then placed two paws on her arm as it froze her hand down again. Ara wasn't sure resisting was a good idea, also because lying down like that was actually more comfortable, and she ended up doing nothing as the creature froze down her other hand too. She was sweating under her coat and overcoat, but her ankles and hands felt a bit chilly. The cat started walking back down the rise, but stopped to stare at her breasts moving up and down as she breathed.

Then the feline moved back. Far back. All the way to where the younger ones were standing -it was actually a bit hard for Ara to see that given her new position- , and it... apparently spurred them to get closer. Next thing she knew, Ara had the younger ones shily walking around her as the older one sat down a bit farther away. They were... really cute, actually, but she couldn't shake off a bad feeling about whatever was going to happen. One of them started playing with one of her tails while the other went to lick her ears, thankfully not the inside of them though. Things became troublesome when they started playing with her breasts though, and especially with her nipples. She had some time to recover from her orgasm, and in truth neither their tongues nor their paws gave as strong of a stimulus as the ones of the older one, but the fact that they were so small and cute somehow made her feel guitly, even though they were the ones playing with her and not the other way around.

That said, Ara was focused on them and hadn't noticed that the older one had moved from where it was sitting. The licking against her entrance came completely unexpected, making her back arch, the ice still firmly preventing her from doing any other significant movement as the sudden burst of pleasure violently hit her. The smaller felines apparently mistook it for her playing back as they got even more energic, randomly going from her chest to her ears to her tails, constantly mixing up the stimulus. Until the older one called them, and they hurried over to him. It pointed at her privates as it showed them it was drinking something, and they seemed to get the message right away. The big one pushed her skirt all the way up to make sure it wouldn't get in the way as the other two started licking her. While their tongues gave a far, far weaker stimulation, they were noticeably more energetic about it. And having her clit played with wasn't really something she could ignore either. That said, they were simply playing, not to mention they took relatively frequent pauses to, well, drink her juices, which honestly made it even worse for her. She could feel her next orgasm getting closer, but rather slowly due to how they were sort of messing around, resulting in more of a teasing than an actual stimulation. Not that she really wanted another half climax either.

Then the little ones backed off as the older one got on top of her, something warm poking against her entrance. Something which definitively wasn't a tongue. After a wonderfully pointless attempt at saying something, Ara felt its member penetrating her in its whole length, its somewhat weird shape hitting her in unusual places. The feline then started moving, its head slightly above hers, its eyes gazing at her blushing face as it occasionally licked her cheeks. Truth be told, however... that really wasn't as stimulating as its tongue on her clit. Not to say she wasn't feeling it, granted, but the difference was impossible not to notice. Or rather, feel. That said, the little ones staring at her made her overly aware of herself, and things only got worse when one of them started poking her nipples while the other decided to play with her twitching ears. What really pushed her over the edge, however, was the fact that the one playing with her breasts started actually sucking one of her nipples while biting down on it. Softly, but still biting.

The pleasure quickly built up as she felt herself contracting against the feline's member, and apparently the cat enjoyed it as it started moving faster. To make things worse, she couldn't stop her ears from twitching, which caused the other little one to play with them even more energetically. Ara held her breath as the feeling spreaded through her whole body, her limbs shivering. But she was the only one to reach her climax, which meant the feline hadn't stopped. If anything, her tightening convinced it to speed up even more, making her run out of breath very quickly, her sensitivity still heightened. On the bright side, the cat didn't last too long and shortly after she felt its warm seed being released inside her in a short but intense load. It then pulled out of her, and that's actually when things took a turn for the worse.

It leaned forward, maybe to check if her hands were still frozen, and as it did so some of its seed, mixed with Ara's own fluids, dropped from its member on her breasts, not really to her delight. The feline then moved back and penetrated her again. That felt just like before. Actually, no. She could tell there was something a bit different. Her first thought was that for some reason the cat had grown bumps, but the feeling was a bit different. Then it pulled out, and Oberon clearly heard her voice despite the gag, the younger ones quickly backing away surprised. As it turned out, those weren't exactly bumps, they were more like small hooks or something like that, and as the feline moved back she felt them scratching against her insides, a completely unexpected stimulation which had taken her breath away. Just like the previous time, the creature's member started contracting rather quickly, and in a matter of minutes she felt more of its seed warming up her already hot body.

It didn't pull out completely though, and instead remained mostly still as it licked Ara's neck, a couple of times her face too, wiping off her tears. Maybe because they had gotten over the surprise, maybe because they liked the sight of Ara's chest moving up and down with her deep breaths, the younger ones came back to play as well. As the older cat started moving again, Ara tried uselessly to move away, the only result being the little ones's amusement apparently. Then, maybe because it was getting too carried away, the one that was literally playing with her breasts bit down on her with more strength as it dig its claws in her bosom. With the trigger she needed finally granted, Ara couldn't tell if the feline's motions had gotten more intense or of it was her sensitivy that had suddenly increased even more. Either way the pleasure rapidly built up and brought her to her long awaited -though she still refused to admit it- full climax, shivers turning into intense trembling as she felt herself contracting against the feline's member, an intense wave of ecstasy spreading within her all the way to her fingertips, followed by another one every time the creature pulled itself back, scratching her inner walls.

She forced herself to take a few deep breaths even though she was still in the middle of her orgasm, and the cat's third ejaculation only made the pleasure stronger. She could feel one of the younger ones playing with her tails, which were waving wildly around, while the other was still focused on her breasts. The larger feline then pulled completely out, and Ara was actually glad to be gagged as she really couldn't see herself holding her voice in, so it being muffled down that much was at least a relief. Her gaze fell on the ceiling as the lingering feeling kept her company, and because of that she didn't notice what else was going on.

She felt something against her entrance again, and she raised her head as much as she could to see what that was. At first she actually couldn't tell, but then she saw one of the young cats licking her entrance before... well, penetrating her. Truth be told, even with her sensitivy greatly enhanced by all she had just been through, the size was simply too small for that to feel like anything more than a teasing, but the fact that it was practically a cub doing it made her feel extremely embarassed, way more than she already was. The older feline kept watch as its younger brothers -that's what Ara thought them to be, at least- had their turn with her, and while she didn't really feel much from that she was really... uncomfortable with it. On the bright side, even together they lasted less than the older one, and shortly after the three of them walked back to the other end of the den. Actually two of them, as one of the younger ones seemed to be looking for a comfortable position to sleep next to her. The older one noticed this and, upon seeing Oberon standing up, went to retrieve the small one and carry it away, holding it by the neck with its mouth before curiously staring at Oberon walking up to Ara. He slowly scratched the ice away until she could push her hands out, then did the same with her ankles.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

"Not... one... bit..." she replied, still short of breath. She wondered if they sold that tonic, given how incredibly effective it was.

He helped her get her overcoat off, using it to cover her chest instead, she pushed her skirt down and then they left the den. As soon as they had gotten out, Oberon picked her up.

"H-hey!"

He started moving toward the exit, carrying her in his arms without replying.

"I can... walk by myself"

Silence.

"I said..."

"I like to carry you like this"

"... eh?"

Dumbfounded, Ara fell silent, her face turning a bit red, her tails -currently three- waving softly as her ears twitched a couple of times. They found Rena waiting in the antechamber. Made sense, considering it was a lot less cold there.

"So... are you alright?" she asked, the sight of Oberon carrying her making her do a few assumptions.

"S-sort of..." Ara replied as sh really regretted not having insisted more on walking on her own. It actually wasn't the first time the elf saw her like that, but it was still embarassing.

Also, she wasn't sure she could ever look at cubs the same way, but telling Rena that definitively wasn't on her list of things to do.

"I'll go then" the elf said as she walked into the dome. Truth is, it would have been more convenient for her to check some other guest while Ara was working rather than waiting for her to finish and then go to the same dome, but... she really wanted to be sure she was fine, and waiting nearby meant she would know almost as soon as she was done.

As for Oberon, he left Ara's overcoat on a chair -she pulled on her coat to cover her breasts-, retrieved the chastity belt then carryed her to the bathroom, where he let go of her. Then he moved to put the belt back on her, but she stopped him. With one hand as with the other she was still holding her coat to cover her chest.

"I can do that myself. Really"

He didn't reply, instead he simply handed it to her. After a brief silence, Ara gave him an inquisitive stare.

"Can you... turn the other way? Please?" she said, the sound of the feline's seed dropping from her chest to the floor suddenly increasing her embarrassment.

"I have to make sure you wear it"

She started saying something, but either she knew it would have been a waste of time or she was too tired to try, maybe a mixture of both, and so she resigned and turned her back to him. Oddly enough he said nothing about it, but she decided not to care. Shortly after the device clicked in place and she turned back to him to reluctantly show that she was really wearing it. Then he made sure it was locked, making her blush, her tails waving nervously behind her. Once he had checked the lock he started walking to the door, but Ara stopped him.

"We... we need to talk" she said.

"We'll talk then, but now I should go make dinner"

Ara was about to say something, but her stomach decided it was just the perfect moment for growling. After that she remained silent, and so he simply walked out, wondering if he had talked too much. He quickly decided that yes, he had talked too much, and he wasn't even sure why.


	12. Ara's Switch

**Ara's Switch**

Ara didn't cook anything that evening, and instead let Oberon prepare dinner. When she walked into the kitchen, however, she was surprised by a rather unexpected sight. That is, Rena. Or rather, the fact that her clothes were tattered and her hair very messy. By the look of it she was also really annoyed. She didn't seem to mind the fact that a lot of her skin -including small bits of... private areas- wasn't exactly covered, but that's because Ara was a female -one she was in confidence with- and she didn't consider Oberon capable of certain thoughts, had there been a man she'd have gotten at least a change of clothes before going to the kitchen. Ara, on her part, wasn't exactly indifferent, her two tails -one had disappeared rather quickly- swaying behind her.

"W... what happened?"

"The cubs wanted to imitate what the brother did with... " the elf replied, stopping before finishing the sentence as that would have probably been like adding salt to a wound "... well, you got it. Calming them down was a bit troublesome"

Ara's tails stood straight up. Both because basically it was her fault and because they most likely didn't want to "imitate" but to... have another round? No way she'd have told her that though. Actually, that worried her on a few different levels as well.

"I honestly hadn't expected that" she commented as she started eating while Ara took a seat "I hope this won't become an habit of theirs" she said, not mentioning the fact that the little ones didn't get out of it exactly unscratched either.

"I hope so as well..."

Aside from that, dinner went by uneventfully -Oberon didn't eat anything- and the elf walked away, still clearly upset. Ara, on the other hand, finished eating a while later and didn't leave once she was done.

"Oberon"

He didn't reply, but he did close the usual book and turn towards her.

"Could you explain what you meant today in the antechamber?"

He thought for a moment about feinging ignorance, but that would have most likely been a bad way to respond and the idea was quickly discarded.

"I thought not knowing beforehand would make you act more spontaneously"

"And how would that help me with the... job?"

"I think some of the guests we have here might understand if you're not acting natural and react badly"

He didn't believe what he was saying himself -or rather, he knew it didn't make much sense-, but he didn't know what else he could tell her at the moment.

"I'm pretty sure that's not true" she replied, quite upset.

"If I might say so, I have far more experience than you when it comes to dealing with them" he said back, trying to back up his excuse.

"That's... true, I guess..."

She really wasn't convinced, and Oberon could tell so. Not that he really expected her to believe any of that, it all sounded stupid to begin with.

"Is that all?" he asked.

"No no no, wait. There's that other thing you said later"

"You feel nice to the touch" he said, this time going straight to the point.

"W-wha-?!" Ara replied, both her ears and tails standing right up as her face turned a bit red.

"Do you want me to go into the details?"

"N-" she almost shouted, then remembered that Rena was upfloor "No, thanks" she said, and for some reason she feared he was actually talking about that morning "I mean, I thought you... didn't really feel..."

"Explaining how my physical perceptions work might be a bit complicated"

Then he stood up and started cleaning the kitchen. Ara, on her part, walked away, headed to her room, reflecting on a few things. She didn't really want to end the conversation there, but maybe it was better to get some rest before going on with it. Once he was done cleaning, Oberon walked to the only locked door of the menagerie. There was something he had to do in that room.

* * *

Ara woke up surprisingly early the next day. She checked her tails, though she could tell they were both still there without having to look. That said, she was feeling rather normal, and that was a good sign. She washed herself and opened her wardrobe. After a relatively long pause she decided to not change outfit though. The one she had been using was the one she was most comfortable with after all, and the others were a bit more formal anyway. Maybe. She walked downstairs, wondering what was for breakfast. When she opened the door to the kitchen she saw Rena wasn't there. Instead...

"Breakfast is ready" he told her.

"..."

* * *

Rena was in her room, writing something on what seemed to be a notebook when she heard Ara's voice. Or rather, her scream. Surprised and also rather confused, she hurried downstair. What she found was... she couldn't exactly tell from the doorstep. She could see Ara on her knees, and by the look of it she was hugging some... thing? Someone? She wasn't sure. What really puzzled her was that Ara had three tails again, and they were all waving rather, well, happily.

"Ara, this is rather troublesome"

The elf recognized Oberon's voice, but he was nowhere to be seen. She walked up to Ara, and then she saw what -who- she was hugging. Oberon. Or rather... was that Oberon? No, no way. Oberon was taller than Ara, and the one she was squeezing was definitively shorter than her. By a long way.

"Ara" he repeated.

Hearing it again, Rena noticed that the voice had a somewhat younger pitch. Did Eve build a sort of younger version of Oberon? Meanwhile, Ara was messing up his hair in an aggressively affectionate way. The... child? He didn't seem too happy about that -nor too unhappy to tell the truth- but he was trying to get her off himself.

"Ara, who is this... boy?"

Either she completely ignored or straight up didn't hear her because she didn't reply. It most likely was the latter, since she seemed to be really focused on him. That rather worried Rena as she wasn't sure she had ever seen Ara that engrossed with anything, and tapped her shoulder. Once. Twice. The third one was actually a push, and Ara did notice that. Without letting go of the poor -fortunate?- child, she turned to the elf.

"Oh, good morning Rena"

"Not to be blunt but let's skip that and get to the point. Who is this child?"

"Child?"

Ara then looked down, as if she had snapped out of some sort of trance. Her ears twitched a couple of times as her gaze fell on the -too?- young boy. She put some distance between him and her, around half an arm's length.

"W... who are you?"

"Who could I possibly be?"

Silence. An awkwardly long silence, eventually interrupted by him.

"It's me. Oberon"

Once again, silence. A shorter one though.

"... no, for real. Who are you?"

"Do you remember that morning yo-"

Ara covered his mouth with both her hands so forcefully she almost pushed him away, her tails and ears standing as straight up as physically possible, her fur pricked up and her face bright red.

"... Ara?" asked Rena.

"It's nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

"I... I guess I'll go have breakfast in a bar or something..." the elf said before walking away. She didn't really know what was going on, but she didn't really have to deal with it. Not that early in the morning.

A short while after they heard the door closing, she moved her hands away.

"Y-you..."

"Maybe telling you that you feel nice to the touch was a bad idea, if these are the consequences"

"No they're not!"

Ara stood back up and took a couple of steps back to take a better look at him. He was definitively... younger-looking, but the facial features were very similar, and the clothes seemed to be literally identical barring the size.

"As I said, breakfast is ready"

"So you... you're really Oberon?"

He didn't reply, but the way he stared at her was enough of an answer.

"S-so... how?"

"My body is undergoing maintenance, for the time being I'm using this substitute"

"But why is it so... young?"

"I'm not the one who decided it so I can't answer that. You should ask the mistress"

_Somehow I knew this was Eve's doing_

Ara took a few long, deep breaths to calm down before taking a seat and at least try to eat. Her gaze, however, quickly fell back on Oberon, who was now cleaning the kitchen top. While standing on top of a chair because he was too short to work on it simply standing on his legs. Her fur, which had gone down, pricked up again as she felt a weird urge she could neither grasp nor understand tingling an odd part of her being deep within her. She forced herself to look away.

"S-so, how long are you going to... keep looking like that?" she asked, awkwardly eating her breakfast.

"From one to four days, it depends on how long the maintenance takes"

The words echoed in her mind, and without realizing it she found herself in a daze, thinking about... she really didn't know about what. A -short?- while later she walked away, leaving half of her breakfast on the table.

"Ara" he called out as she was about to open the door.

"Y-yes?"

"I could use your help today with some work"

"Wait, already?!" she almost shouted, instinctively bringing an hand over her womb as she could still feel those felines's seed inside her.

"Not that kind or work"

"Oh..." she replied, a bit embarassed from her own jumping to that kind of conclusion "O-ok then... sure..."

That said, she tried to avoid him for the rest of the morning. Rena had come back too at one point, and probably asked Oberon himself what was going on, though she wasn't sure what he said to the elf. Eventually, Ara went back to the kitchen and found Oberon there. Just like that morning, he was standing on a chair to properly reach the the kitchen top.

_C... cute..._

Then she realized he was calling her. A few seconds later she remembered she was supposed to have cooking practice. That said, there was something lying there in plain sight among the ingredients, something which awakened bad memories within her. She felt a chill run up her spine as her gaze locked on it for a short moment.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to skip this time... please"

Oberon looked at her for a few seconds, then turned to what her gaze had fell on. That is, eggs. On one hand he could see her reasons, on the other it felt a bit too irrational even for Ara.

"It's not a problem" he answered then.

A while later Rena arrived too. She had probably already had a talk with Oberon about his current appearance as she didn't ask anything. Lunch went by silently, but not exactly normally. Rena was constantly avoiding looking at Oberon because she found that small body to be so unfitting for him the mere sight almost made her laugh, and as much as she didn't exactly consider him in a... normal way, laughing of him in front of him still felt impolite. Ara, on the other hand, couldn't help but stare at him every other minute. As for Oberon himself, he was sitting in his usual spot, reading the usual book, apparently uncaring of his current situation.

"Alright, I'll get to work" the elf said once she was done eating.

Ara took around half an hour longer to finish as she was constantly dazing off. She eventually got herself together, went to her room and sat on the bed. There was a tingling feeling bothering her, and weirdly enough it was -mostly- in her hands. Then someone -namely, Oberon- knocked at the door. She went to open. And had to look down to meet his gaze.

"Shall we go?"

"Eh... ah, right. Sure"

"Very well"

As she followed him downstairs, she couldn't stop her tails from wailing, and the tingling on her hands seemed to get a bit stronger too. They went to the elevator, and then to the twelth floor. At first Ara was surprised to see it was radically different from the other ones, though thinking about it it wasn't that weird. Probably. Anyway, that place was a warehouse. A somewhat cold one too, and with a rather low ceiling less than three meters high.

"I thought these things were kept in the antechambers?" she asked as she walked around a bit, looking at the boxes filling the shelves. Each had something written on it indicating from one to a dozen of different rooms of the upper floors.

"Those are still in need of work, or in most cases they just have to age for a while. Here is where the finished products are kept" he replied as he started taking some boxes and handing them to her "Put these in the elevator"

She noticed that on each was also stamped the image of a mask, a different one on every box. To distract herself from a certain something -someone-, she asked him about that.

"These are all pre ordered, the mask is a replacement for the buyers's names"

A rather odd replacement, but far from the weirdest thing she had seen since she had started living there. They kept piling boxes in the elevator for a while, then Oberon called her and pointed to a box out of his current reach.

"That one"

For some reason her fur stood up for a moment, then she calmed down and took the box. They spent the following... hour? that way, occasionally going back to the ground floor and moving the boxes from the elevator to the entrance hall. At one point, however, Oberon pointed to a box on the highest ledge of the shelves. And... Ara couldn't reach it. Not by that much, but it was too high. She tried to stand on her toes -not that easy since she was wearing wedges- but it remained out of reach. Oberon thought about telling her to simply jump, but... she could be surprisingly clumsy, at least when it came to everyday activities like that, and he could picture her somehow dropping the box easily. For the sake of the goods -and hers as breaking one of those would have added to her debt- he discarded that idea. Maybe Ara was aware of that herself. Maybe.

"Lift me" he then said.

"... eh?"

"I can reach it if you lift me"

Her ears twitched a few times in quick succession as her tails waved energetically behind her, though only for a brief moment.

"Isn't there a ledge? A chair? ... something?"

"There is usually no need for it as normally I can reach that high"

"R... right..."

And so she grabbed him by the waist and lifted him. She could feel her hands tingling for some reason, and she couldn't help but stare at him. He was... cute, simply cute. Oberon then took the box and Ara placed him back on the floor. She took a breath of relief while he put the package in the elevator, then he called her over to a different shelf. And pointed again to a box out of her reach. A weird expression appeared on her face, something between a smile, a grin and something else hard to describe.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"N-no, not at all..."

The next half hour proved to be surprisingly awkward for Ara, urges she had an hard time identifying rising within her every time she had to lift Oberon up. He noticed she was acting weird, but for one reason or another he decided to not pay it too much attention. Well, until she sort of forced him to. Like all the previous times, she had grabbed him around the waist. But she stopped once she had lifted him at around her chest's height. Oberon waited for a few moments before inquiring.

"Is something wrong?"

A brief silence, then Ara fell -?- backwards, ending up sitting on the floor as she went from holding to straight up hugging him, rather tightly at that. She started running an hand over his chest as she... snuggled up against his back, pushing her head against his. Oberon was rather confused. When she slid an hand under his shirt he tried to stop her, but quickly gave up on that as Ara was way stronger than she looked and that tiny body couldn't really match her, especially now that she seemed to be in some sort of trance. He felt her holding him closer as her hand wandered around over his chest, eventually settling roughly where the heart was supposed to be. At that point he decided he had had enough of that. Or rather, he was actually rather intrigued by her weird behavior and didn't mind the situation too much, except for two small details. One being that he had planned to work and the other was that something about the situation actually annoyed him, though he wasn't sure what.

And so he pinched Ara, hard, using the knuckles of his fingers instead of the tip to make sure she'd feel it. Apparently that worked as, while she didn't really let go of him, she greatly loosened her grasp. A few more moments -and a couple more pinches- and she snapped back to reality. Sort of. She saw how she was holding him and hurriedly let go of Oberon, who calmly got back on his feet. Ara did so too after a few moments, and by the look on her face she was more confused than him.

"I-uh-well... I don't... I..."

"Now, what were you doing?"

"I..." she started saying, her hands still somewhat tingling "... I don't... well..."

Seeing she didn't seem to be able to give him a proper answer, he decided to skip ahead.

"Can we resume?"

"Eh?"

After a very brief moment she realized he was talking about the boxes.

"Ah, s-sure!"

"Are you really sure?"

She took a deep breath, then another, then at least tried to calm down.

"Yes"

And apparently she was right as things went rather smoothly after that. The afternoon went by, and by the end of it they were done bringing the boxes upstairs. They were quite a lot, and in truth there were still more back down. Rena probably knew about them already as she didn't seem to pay them any particular attention. Soon before dinner, Oberon called Ara for cooking. And aside from her usual... culinary feats, nothing special happened. For ten minutes. Then, as Oberon was about to get off the chair he had to use to reach the kitchen top to go get something, Ara grabbed him from the side and held him tightly against her chest. Again. He pinched her right away this time, though he had to put more strength into it compared to that afternoon. She dropped him and he landed on the floor.

"Ouch! ... wait..."

"Ara" he said, a faint hint of annoyance in his voice.

"I..."

She averted her gaze because his voice on that tiny body seemed so out of place -maybe simply because she was used to seeing him taller than she was, but still- and cute that she just couldn't look straight at him, not without the fear of snapping again.

"... sorry"

Then Rena walked in, and while she couldn't know what had just happened, she seemed to get an idea, especially because she saw Ara that morning. For one reason or another, however, she decided not to talk about it either. The next day things got sort of worse, as Ara would randomly grab Oberon for up to five minutes before he managed to make her snap back, and sometimes she wouldn't limit herself to hugging. One time Rena had to help get her off him as well. The third morning it got almost unbearable, and he found himself spending around two hours forcefully hugged by Ara. Once again, Rena had to help him get out of that. Lunch came, and Ara actually refused to eat in the kitchen because at that point she knew she coulnd't keep herself together -she wasn't even sure why- in front of him. She asked Rena to bring her something to her room later and walked upstairs.

She was sitting on her bed, and as her mind visualized Oberon's small body her hand subconsciously ventured between her legs. She realized it only when her fingers scratched against the belt. She quickly moved it away, and soon after someone knocked on the door. Of course said someone was Oberon. Ara opened the door and, without a word, he walked in and left a tray on the table -it was lower than the kitchen top- then turned to her, who was actually unsure what to say.

"Ara" he said as he closed the door.

She felt her fur stand straight up.

"I... what about Rena?"

He didn't reply. Instead he opened his arms as if to invite her.

"Go ahead"

A brief silence.

"... eh?"

"I think you'd get somewhat depressed were I to simply go back to my usual body and end it there. So, go ahead and get it out of your mind. I don't want you to get distracted over this in the next days"

On one hand, that was sort of... nice of him. On the other, she was feeling something scratching against the currently weak pillar that was her self control, her tails waving behind her as her ears were standing right up.

"A... are you... I mean..."

Her gaze met his for a brief moment, and at that point she pretty much lost it. She dashed forward, going dangerously close to tackling him. With possibly the swiftest move of her life, Ara grabbed Oberon, almost literally threw him on the bed and got on top of him. Her eyes were always rather bright when red, but now he could see some sort of light in them. Not to mention her expression. She literally tore his shirt open -that sort of annoyed him- and started, well, licking him. The outer layer of that body was, like with his main one, a replica of human skin, so it's not as if she was running her tongue over steel or anything like that. As she frantically ran her hands over him while moving up to his neck with her tongue, he wondered how he was supposed to act. Then she pressed her lips against his and shoved her tongue inside his mouth. This rather surprised Oberon who, after a relatively short moment, decided to play along. Or at least try, as he wasn't too comfortable with the role, whatever said role actually was.

And so he pretended to try to back off somewhat, at which she grabbed him with one hand to push him closer to herself. With her other hand she grabbed his wrist and brought it to her chest. He was about to start fondling her right away as that clearly seemed to be what she wanted, but then he stopped to wonder how... proactive he was supposed to be. And so he did start to move his hand over her chest, but with as much hesitation as he could fake. Which wasn't that much but apparently it still was enough to please her, or so it seemed. She pulled her mouth away, a small tread of saliva hanging from their lips. Her face was flushed, but there really wasn't any shyness to be found there. Then she pulled both her dress and bra down and pushed his face against her breasts.

"Here" she said with an alluring, seductive voice which almost sounded out of place coming from Ara.

After a brief confusion during which he thought about what to do, he placed his mouth over one of her nipples and started sucking. He wasn't sure he liked that situation -and he wasn't sure why- but since he had sort of started it in the first place, he was going to see the end of it.

"There, there..." she said, clearly pleased, one hand behind his head and ruffling his hair.

He kept sucking her chest, trying to act as... inexpertly as possible because he thought that would have been a better fit for the... situation? He placed his hands on her chest, but rather than groping he simply touched them. He wasn't sure for how long that went on, probably around five minutes, then she spoke.

"Do you like them?" she asked, giggling.

No clearly wasn't the right answer, but for some reason he felt like a simple yes wasn't the right choice either. After a brief but intense brainstorming, he replied.

"A lot, big sis" he answered trying to sound childish, immediatly wondering why he had done that.

Her ears, tails and fur all stood straight up upon hearing that, and he felt her gaze piercing right through him. She almost jumped.

"S-say that again"

He hesitaded, and this time not because he was acting a part.

"... big... sis"

She crashed on top of him, pushing her lips against his as she moved her skirt up and placing his hands on her butt. Taken aback by her... aggressiveness, he hesitated a moment before closing his small hands on her buttocks. She buried her nose in his hair and started smelling him, fondling her chest with one hand while holding him close with the other. She then got on her knees, bringing him up with her and pushing his face against her breasts while she ran her hands over his head and back, sliding them under his torn shirt. Shortly after, however, she pushed her pantyhose down, and in doing so her fingers met the chastity belt, reminding her of its presence.

"You know" she said, the tone of her voice almost making it hard to believe that was really Ara "Big sis could really use a key now, you know?" she asked while running her tongue over his neck "Do you happen to have one, my cute boy?"

He forced himself to make it look like he was actually feeling it -there weren't many times he was glad to not have normal physical feelings, and that was probably one of them- and he replied.

"I... do..." he replied as he took the key from a pocket.

"Good boy" she answered as she took it from him. Then she backed off a bit and unlocked the belt. She took it off and threw it away, making it land behind the bed. She stepped back on the bed, and then...

"Is Oberon still here?" Rena asked as she opened the door.

Time froze. The elf's gaze quickly ran over the room. Oberon lying on the bed, his shirt torn apart and traces of saliva here and there on his body. Ara, her breasts exposed, her skirt pulled up, her pantyhose down, her face flushed and her womanhood visibly moist. She slammed the door close and didn't open it again. After the longest minute of the last decade, Oberon stood up.

"Do you want to continue?" he asked, wondering if a part of him wanted her to say no.

"I... I..." she replied as she fell to her knees "... I want to die..." she said as she buried her face in her hands.

"... I guess we can pretend the belt wasn't unlocked this time" he said before taking back the key and walking out. He didn't put it back on her, he thought it would have been better to let her do it herself that time. Worst case he'd have made her wear it himself later. By the time he closed the door behind him, Ara had already lost a tail. Rena was nowhere to be seen, so Oberon headed to the locked door. He opened it, stepped into the room, locked the door again, then he mentally went over what had just happend. And maybe for the first time in his long, long life, he bashed his head against the wall.

That evening's dinner proved to be the most awkward one to date, Rena and Ara both looking only at the floor, albeith for different reasons. Oberon, on his part, didn't seem different from usual, though the truth was he was still wondering about what he had done and why. Once they were done eating, Ara went to the bathroom and took a long, long bath. Too long actually, mainly because she fell asleep there. On the bright side, when she woke up she found out that both her tails were gone, though her hair and eyes had yet to turn back. Well, considering why she was turning back that quickly -Rena's face upon seeing her and Oberon flashed in her mind again-, her tails being gone was of little consolation. She could have played with herself a bit since she had yet to put the belt back on, but she really wasn't in the right mood. It was late in the night when she walked out of the bathroom and back to her room. Her gaze fell on the belt, but she decided to leave it there for a while longer. She had almost forgotten how normal panties felt like, and she was glad she got to sleep with fabric rather than metal covering her privates for once.


	13. Preparations

**Preparations**

When Ara woke up the next day, her hair and eyes had gone back to their normal color. It was relatively late in the morning, but not too late for breakfast yet. She got off the bed, washed herself and got dressed, then she looked at the belt. Oberon said he could pretend it hadn't been unlocked for that one time, which probably meant the cost -how much was it again?- wasn't automatically added to her debt but was instead done manually. She took the chastity belt in hand, and after a relatively long pause she dropped it down. She had kept it off the whole night, she might as well wait until after breakfast to put it back on. And the fact that she didn't have the key made the idea of waiting a bit more really, really appealing. And so she headed downstairs, confident that after the previous day's accident she could keep herself together in front of a small Oberon. When she walked into the kitchen, however, the one to greet her was actually the normal, tall Oberon.

"Good morning"

"Ah... good morning..." she replied, a bit of disappointment in her voice "Where is Rena?" she asked, in a quick attempt at not talking about his stature.

"In her room getting some paperwork done"

"Say... about yesterday..."

"Have you put the belt back on?"

"Actually... not yet"

"I know I said I wouldn't count it" he replied as he placed her breakfast on the table "But I'm afraid you're taking it a bit too far now"

"I honestly think I actually deserve some respite from that, given what I've been going through"

"This is something you should discuss with the mistress, not with me"

Ara sighed. She was quite sure Oberon used Eve as an excuse only because she really was the one who made all those decisions, but his shaking off certain arguments like that was rather annoying.

"... a-anyway, sorry for... yesterday"

"Don't worry about it"

Then, just as she was about to sit down, Eve walked in, followed by both Ophelia and Ferdinand, each carrying several shopping bags. Oberon immediatly dropped what he was doing to turn toward his mistress. Without ceremony she took a seat then made a long list of dishes which probably were supposed to be her breakfast as Ophelia and Oberon immediatly started cooking. She then told Ferdinand to literally go fetch Rena, and only then she turned to Ara, who was still rather dumbfounded by her sudden appearance.

"I knew you'd have yet to eat at this hour"

"It's... it's nice to see you too, Eve..."

"So, how are things going here?"

"How do you expect them to go exactly?" she asked back as she -finally- sat down.

Shortly after Rena walked in, surprised by Eve's sudden arrival as well. She sat down too while Ferdinand went to get a bottle of wine -a rather expensive one, unlike those they usually had there- and poured her a glass before going back to standing behind her, to her left.

"I guess you're here in preparation for the fair?" the elf asked then.

Eve took her sweet time savoing her drink before replying.

"Indeed, and since this is the first time you take part in it there are some things you need to know beforehand"

Then Ophelia and Ferdinand started serving her breakfast. Almost all of those dishes were new to Ara, and they all looked rather... something between high cuisine and straight up extravagance. Though given the size of each portion, calling them samples might have been more appropriate than using the word dishes. Eve started eating, and the main reason neither Ara nor Rena got particularly annoyed was that they had known her for a long enough time. That, and one way or another she was sort of their employer at the moment.

"Let's start with the most important one. During the fair you must always wear a mask when in front of other people, and it must be the same one from the first to the last day of the fair. The only exception is for those who host events, run an activity or work at one. They are allowed to have two different masks, one for work and one for when they're not doing business. Always keep your mask on in front of others, walking around without it is like saying that you don't care what anyone does to you, and is considered the mark of a vulgar person. In the worst case you won't make it to the end of the fair as a free -or living- person anymore"

"You're... kidding, right?"

"Why are the masks so important?" Ara asked.

"You can think about it as a sort of pretense of anonymity. At first it was simply that, but over time it became a bit more... extreme. I'll give you two your masks before the fair begins, don't worry about that. As for your clothes, as long as they're not plain anything will do. And later today others will arrive to start the preparations for the fair, so don't go out nor close to a window without the curtains closed without your masks"

Which meant don't go out at all since they had none at the moment.

"I hope we won't be the only ones to still be easily recognizable?" Rena inquired, clearly talking about her own ears.

"People using masks that still leaves them easily recognizable aren't rare, you don't have to worry about that. It's a "pretense" of anonimity for a reason"

"You make it sound like a rather weird dress code, with... excessive implications. Really extreme"

"When all is said and done, that's exactly what it is"

She then took a rather long pause to eat some more. Around fifteen minutes later she spoke again.

"There are a few animals I need to have checked on before the third day of the fair" she then told Rena as Ferdinand handed the elf a small piece of paper with a list written on it.

"This... I think I can get it done in time if that's what you ask" she responded after having read it "But that's if nothing major comes up during the check ups. Actually, it's better if I get started right away just to make sure" she said as she got up and left.

"So, Ara" Eve then said, and for some reason she felt a chill run down her spine.

She was actually rather surprised when Eve started eating again. And it took around half an hour for her to finish, which rather unnerved Ara.

"Alright. Oberon, with me. Ara too. Ferdinand, get my room ready. Ophelia, once you're done cleaning here bring me a list of the inventory"

Without waiting for replies -which wouldn't have come anyway as they weren't needed from her servants or wanted in Ara's case- she headed upstairs. The three of them walked to Ara's room, and Eve went straight to her wardrobe. She opened it and started going through her clothes.

"H-hey, what's with that?" she asked.

"Mmh, I think I'll have to get you something for the..." Eve started saying, but then her gaze fell on something. Which is to say, the chastity belt.

Ara noticed it and froze. Eve took the belt in hand and turned around.

"Say, how long has this been here?"

"Well... not much... around..."

"Let me remind you that you're far from the best liar around"

"Y... yesterday... around lunch..."

"You do know that this affects your debt, right?"

"It doesn't make any sense though" she replied "Why do I even have to wear it in the first place?"

"Let's put it this way. You do a little live performance for a few paying guests, and I'll overlook this" she said.

At this point it's probably better to explain a small detail. Eve had yet to see the recordings from the previous day, that's why she didn't know about the belt yet. But she did put Oberon in charge of keeping the remaining sum of the debt up to date, and because of that she wouldn't have found about that removal of the belt not being counted. As long as Ara didn't take it too far, that is.

"... wait, what do you mean with live performance?"

"What you do for work here, but in front of other people"

"You -!"

Ara walked up to Eve but a moment before her hands could reach her Oberon grabbed her from behind and dragged her back while holding her wrists. Considering that she was in perfect condition, keeping her still wasn't exactly easy and he wasn't sure for how long he could actually do it.

"How can you even ask me something like that?!"

"Now, don't get the wrong idea. You'll wear a mask -one for work- and it will alter your voice a bit. Your clothes will be picked for the event as well, and trust me, during the fair masks and clothes are more important than faces. Even then, you'll have tails and ears during the performance, adding the white hair and red eyes to all of that the chances of someone recognizing you during the rest of the fair are nonexistent. And even if someone did recognize you, they wouldn't care as much as you think"

"Do you really think I'll agree to something like this just because I didn't wear that damn belt?!" she replied as she tried to kick her. Eve just took a couple of steps back.

"Don't get me wrong, I'll take a million and a half off your debt if you do that"

Ara froze. That was a whole third of the money she owed Eve. Granted, it would still leave her with three millions to pay off -three millions minus whatever she had earned up to that moment, she really had to ask about that- but it was nonetheless an huge sum.

"I also won't mind if you decide to not wear the chastity belt from now until the fair's end. Excluding the first three days of it"

A long silence, during which Ara's mind had turned into a storm. Eventually she spoke.

"How... how many people will... watch? Assuming I accept"

"Fifteen"

_Does that mean they all would pay an hundred thousand to watch?_

"I..."

"You can let her go" Eve told Oberon, who did so "I need your answer in twenty four hours, Ara" she said as she walked out, gesturing her servant to follow her. Truth is, the whole negotiation was a farce. The part about the belt was something she came up with on the moment, but she had planned to take that sum off her debt from the start. Were Ara to refuse to perform, then Eve would have used... other methods to make her change her mind. But if possible she wanted her to do that willingly. Courtesy of a friend, one might say. A weird courtesy of a weird friend.

Ara spent the rest of the day thinking about that. She really didn't like the idea of others seeing her doing... that, but the chance of reducing her debt by more than a million all at once was hard to ignore. And Eve seemed to stress the fact that at the fair common values seemed to be way off, so maybe she really wouldn't have been judged for doing something like that. The part about the belt wasn't that important compared to the rest, but it was a nice addition. Then again, other people watching...

* * *

The next day, at lunch. Rena was thankfully busy with the sudden deadline to ask Ara about what she was doing with Oberon two days before, but she did notice she looked pensive the previous day at dinner. Even aside from that, Eve's arrival had changed quite a few things. For starters, the meals. It's as if they'd gone from eating home cuisine to eating at a five stars restaurant. Ara and Rena did wonder why Oberon didn't cook like that for them, though they both came up with a different reason. Second, the place became busy, with the three servants carrying boxes from the last floor to the entrance -there were at least two hundreds of them-, sorting them in some order, setting up what seemed to be a stall -a luxurious one- outside the menagerie, and other things. As for Eve's room, neither Rena nor Ara got to see it as apparently it was behind the locked door.

Rena finished eating first and went to the elevator right away. Ara didn't take much longer. Eve, instead, was savoring every single bite, to the point it took her almost an hour longer to finish. Then she turned to Ara.

"So, what's your decision?"

"I'd like to see what my p... partner would be, before giving you an answer"

_Surprisingly thoughtful of you_

She stood up and walked out, with Ara walking behind her. Two of her servants were working in the entrance hall, while Ophelia was somewhere else.

"Oberon, show Ara her mate. Ferdinand, you can clean up the kitchen" she said before walking away.

Soon after, Ara and Oberon were standing in the forth antechamber of the ninth floor. She didn't even pay much attention to what was in the room as they stepped into the dome. The environment there was a forest, a rather normal one at first glance. On second glance, everything seemed to be scaled up a bit in size. A few things, like the bushes, were almost normal, but a few trees seemed to be twice as large than normal.

"This way" he said as he started walking.

Ara was... not too nervous, and that surprised her a bit. Maybe because regardless of her decision, she wouldn't have worked that day. She followed Oberon for a short while, then he stopped. She didn't need him to to tell her where to look as it was rather hard to not see it.

"Is this some sort of joke?" Ara asked as she looked at the fox resting on a tree branch.

It was large. Not as big as an horse, but still enough for a person, maybe two, to comfortably ride it. It's fur was thick, smooth and shiny, of a deep black with shades of dark blue here and there. It's ears were oddly large, or rather elongated, and under them was another, far smaller pair. It had two large eyes, each with two irises of a vibrant blue. Lastly, it had four long tails. Maybe they had interrupted its nap, as the fox seemed to yawn. Its gaze fell on Oberon, but quickly moved from him to Ara. They stared at each other for a short while, then apparently it lost interest in her too and went back to napping.

"So?" asked Oberon.

"I... I think I can... do it" she said, more to herself than to him. She wondered if it was because she had hosted Eun in her body for a long time that the fox looked almost... appealing.

* * *

The remaining five days went by rather quickly. The night before the fair Ara had some trouble falling asleep, which maybe was a bit childish but on the other hand also quite comprehensible. She woke up early -or rather, at a normal hour- the next morning, and Rena was a bit surprised to find her already awake. Eve, on her part, had gotten up before sunrise, though she did spare some time to have breakfast with them. Ophelia was nowhere to be seen though.

"How are things going?"

"I'll finish today, at worst tomorrow morning" Rena replied.

"So, uh, what kind of... things can we do at the fair?" Ara asked. Truth be told, she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Everyone here calls it a fair, but maybe saying a festival would give off a better idea of it. Anyway, there is quite the variety of activities, shops and events, but if I had to pick a word to describe them I would probably go with hedonism"

"Hedonism?" Ara commented, as somehow that word made her exhibition seem far more normal.

"You'll both be busy for the first few days anyway, so it's better if you just wait. I'll have one of my servants show you around on the third, maybe fourth day"

"At least it sounds interesting" Rena commented before heading to the elevator.

Shortly after that Eve and Ara finished eating as well.

"So... what do I have to do these two days, exactly?"

"Getting ready for your exhibition, obviously"

For some reason Ara didn't like how that sounded, at all. And when she remembered that she was supposed to wear the chastity belt for the first two days of the fair she got even more worried. Eve got up and gestured both her and Oberon to follow her, and for the first time Ara got to see what was behind the locked door. And truth be told, it was nowhere near what she had expected, though she wasn't sure what she was expecting in the first place. The room was relatively large, and almost buried in papers and document holders, with only a single desk and a chair besides those. That, and stairs going both up and down. They walked upstairs. That space looked a lot more like a normal room. There was a bed -an incredibly fancy canopy bed-, several wardrobes, three desks, no windows, a door and a rather large bag.

"Sit on the bed" Eve told Ara as she pointed at one of the desks.

She nervously did so while Oberon grabbed from said desk a bottle of what seemed to be wine and two glasses, then served them. Eve casually drank it, while Ara hesitated a bit.

"Would you rather be able to see the onlookers or not?" she then asked.

"Eh?"

"They paid for it so they will obviously get to see you, but if you'd rather not see them I can use one-way mirrors"

"That's..." she started saying, then she gulped down the drink -it was bitter- and took a brief pause before talking again "I don't know, really... you didn't bring me here just to ask this, right?"

Eve drank another glass and gestured Oberon to pour Ara another one as well.

"No, of course not" she replied as she took the suspicious-looking bag and pulled Ara's chastity belt out of it "As I said before, you're here to get ready for the event"

"What do you... mean... "

She suddenly felt her head spin. Her vision became extremely blurry and her limbs grew extremely weak. Then she lost consciousness. For a few minutes only though, after which she woke up again. Thing is, she was tied to the bed, with leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles, each bound to a different edge of the frame by a sturdy chain. She had enough room to move around a bit, but not enough to actually unfasten the cuffs herself. Well, obviously.

"... wait... what..." she said, still dazed.

"You see this?" Eve asked as she showed her a sort of remote with a single button on it "Press this if you need something, something important. Only for that" she said as she placed it on the bed, where Ara could reach it even with her hands restrained "If you call us to ask to let you off the bed we'll stop coming"

"What... are you talking... about?" she asked, the confusion from the drink quickly being replaced by the one caused by Eve's words.

"The room is soundproof, so don't worry about that" Eve continued as she pulled Ara's pantyhose and panties down.

That apparently made her snap back to full consciousness.

"Wait, what are you doing?!"

Ignoring her, Eve casually slid a small egg vibrator inside Ara. Then another one in her butt. And then used a piece of scotch tape to fix a third one on her clit.

"E-Eve!"

She kept ignoring her as she put her clothes back in place, then turned all three the vibrators on. Ara... actually almost didn't feel them. That possibly confused her even more. It's not that she didn't actually feel them, it's just that the vibrations were really, really weak.

"Just what..."

Then Eve took a piece of cloth, poured something over it and moved closer to Ara's face. She instinctively tried to get away, obviously to no avail, and Eve placed the damp cloth on her mouth and nose, tying it behind her head so that she couldn't shake it off. A sweet, pungent scent immediatly hit her.

"Eve, what is this?!"

"As I said, preparations" she replied, a bit annoyed that she had to repeat herself again, as she headed to the stairs "Remember, if you push that button for no reason we'll just ignore it when you use it out of actual necessity" she said, then walked downstairs without waiting for a reply. She didn't tell Ara about the hidden cameras though. Well, she didn't know there were cameras in the menagerie in the first place, otherwise she would have probably suspected there were some in that room as well.

"Are you kidding me!?"

Her limbs were a bit sore, probably because of what she had drunk. She took a few moments to calm down, and that's when she noticed that there was a mirror on top of the bed, which meant she could get a perfect look at herself. What an odd place, for a mirror.

The first few minutes were simply... normal, as normal as they could be given the situation. The cloth was a bit bothersome since it was damp, but the strong scent was actually a bigger annoyance. As she regained full sensibility in her arms and legs, she started to move around a bit, to test her restraints, then she started pulling against them. The vibrations in her underwear were rather... well, they were too weak to really be a problem, for the time being at least. As she struggled against the chains, however, she started to feel hot. The scent coming from the clothes seemed to get stronger too and, although only faintly, she felt a familiar tingling between her legs.

"No, no, just no" she said as the vibrations apparently got somewhat stronger.

Her gaze fell on the mirror, but she looked away the moment she saw her hair and eyes were beginning to change color. Quickly enough she realized neither the chains nor the cuffs would have come off, and so she tried to think about events completely unrelated to anything sexual. It worked, at first. But as time went by, the tingling grew stronger and stronger, while the actual physical stimulus remained painfully weak. Keeping her mind off that became really hard. At one point she realized she was sweating. She was a bit thirsty, but for some reason she didn't want to push that button, maybe because doing so would have been like admitting she was in trouble. And she totally was. There weren't clocks in the room, or at least she couldn't see any from her position, so she had no way to know exactly for how long she had been like that. She could tell her panties were wet, and if she had to guess she'd have said her nipples were hard too. She got confirmation of the last part when she felt them poking against her bra. At some point she gave in to the frustration and started squirming against the chains again, with no results. Her gaze fell on the mirror and she saw that she had already gotten to the point of having grown a tail. Her breath was quite ragged, and her face flushed.

Someone eventually walked back in. Which is to say, Eve. Followed by Ophelia. The first thing Ara noticed was that Eve's dress was... elegant. As in really, really elegant. And also rather unusual, the fabric molded into shapes somewhat resembling feathers at the end of the sleeves, the skirt and the mantle. Because she was also wearing a rather large mantle. Every piece of clothing was white, with pink and golden decorations here and there. Together with a white mask, which covered her whole face and had several decorations on it, both pink and golden just like her dress, she had a rather... royal look. She walked to a desk and took her mask off. Ophelia, on her part, placed down a tray -a three-levels one- on another table before walking away.

"It's lunch break" Eve then said "Rena is having a few problems with her job so she'll probably eat directly in the dome, so I thought I might as well bring your food here"

"You... !"

She walked up to Ara, pulled down her pantyhose and panties with a single motion then, without any ceremony, removed all three vibrators at once. Ara held her voice in. Eve then put the chastity belt on her, then removed the cloth from her face. Instead she took a different one and pushed it against her mouth and nose for a few seconds, during with Ara uselessly struggled against the ropes. After that Eve untied her, without bothering fixing her clothing. Trying to ignore the aching between her legs, Ara stood up and stretched her limbs. Which suddenly felt oddly weak, though she knew why.

"The fair is going smoothly" Eve said as she walked to the tray and started eating "The first day or two we're usually visited by those who had already booked some goods and only need to retrieve them, but since there's lots of them it's quite busy. Most of the boxes you saw in the entrance hall contain that"

A brief silence, then Ara decided that ignoring her thirst would have been both stupid and pointless, so she took a seat in front of Eve and, after drinking four glasses of water, started eating as well.

"What's the point of... this?" she asked between a mouthful and the other.

"To make sure you'll be in the right mood for your live performance. I'd like to show you around the fair myself after that, but I had already filled my agenda for these two weeks around six months ago. I'll try to keep an afternoon free the next year"

Ara wasn't sure she liked how friendly Eve was acting. It's not that they weren't friends, it's just that... well, being friends with Eve was a rather unique experience, she realized that a few years ago. Though she'd have never guessed it would be that much unique. Anyway, they spent the next hour or so Talking. At that point Ara had realized that she couldn't really reason with Eve -quite ironic, considering that Eve was, technically speaking, a machine-, and so she had given up on arguing. Conversating about what were overall trivial things, anyway, helped her get her mind off the tingling feeling too. Until Ferdinand walked in.

"The break is over"

"So, uh... mind if I take a look around the fair?" Ara asked.

"Of course I do" Eve replied as she stood up.

"Eh?"

Ferdinand grabbed Ara's shoulders from behind and threw her back on the bed. She tried to get off it but Eve's drones came out of nowhere to push her back down. It had actually been months since she last saw them so in a certain way that was almost nostalgic. The feeling of the cuffs locking around her wrists brought her back to the present, albeith too late. Eve bound her ankles to the bedframe too then pulled down Ara's lower clothing again, removed the chastity belt and put the vibrators back in place, then pushed her panties and pantyhose back up, all the while ignoring her protests.

"Same as this morning, Ara" Eve said as she tied another damp piece of cloth to Ara's face "I'll see you at dinner" she concluded while putting her mask back on.

"Wait, Eve! Eve!"

Ara's shouts were ignored -again- as she was left alone for the second time, wondering why she was so bad at standing her ground againts certain people. The previous hour or so of rest did help her a bit, but still. In what probably was half an hour she felt like she had gone back to the same state she was in when Eve came for lunch. The rest of the afternoon proved to be an hellish one, just as she had feared. The aphrodisiac -what else could the cloth be wet with?- combined with the constant vibrations on three spots at once kept increasing her arousal. To make things worse, the vibrations never increased in intensity, and since they weren't hitting any of her sweet spots either -well, there was the one on her clit but it was also on an even lower setting than the other two- she just couldn't manage to reach an orgasm, and the fact that there was nothing preventing her from hurting herself as much as needed made it that much more frustrating. At one point she started struggling against the cuffs, violently, causing the chains to rattle relatively loudly. And while she did vent some... anger that way, the only other thing she accomplished was exhausting herself and helping the circulation of the aphrodisiac through her body. She could tell without looking at the mirror -she had been actively avoiding doing so- that her tails were now two, and they were both waving energetically.

Eventually came dinner, and it didn't go much differently from lunch. Aside from Ara trying to jump on Eve and Oberon stopping her. Ara was then casually dismissed, and Oberon accompanied her back to her room. There she sat on the bed.

"I'm not sure I can stand her when she acts like that" she told herself as she remained alone.

She was feeling... a bit nervous, truth be told. There was only one day left between her and the performance, and she was already having second thoughts about it. She took a look at her masks, which were resting on the table. Mainly at the one she would have worn during her exhibition. It was white with red decorations, and it was made to resemble, albeith somewhat vaguely, a fox. The shape was rather peculiar, as it left her right cheek exposed. She tried it on again and spoke. Her voice really sounded a bit different. Just a bit, but still. She put it back on the table, walked to the kitchen to grab something else to eat then headed to her bed. Keeping her hands from scratching against the belt, she managed to fall asleep relatively quickly. She was both angry, disappointing and in a certain way relieved that the first day of the fair had gone like that, but maybe the second one would have gone better.

She woke up the next morning, got up and yawned as she stretched her arms, the tingling already preventing her from relaxing. Then she rubbed her eyes one more time, and her fur pricked up as she realized that she wasn't in her room.


	14. Public Display of Lust

**Public Display of Lust  
**

Ara looked around. For starters she was on a sofa rather than on a bed. The room was... rather normal, actually. There were no windows, but aside from that there was nothing that really stood out. She got up, put on her clothes -thankfully they were there- and headed out of the single door present, stepping into a rather long hallway with a few, numbered doors. She walked to the furthest one, which was also the only one lacking a number, and opened it. She found herself in what one could describe as a very small, circular theatre. The stage was placed in the middle of the room, with a round curtain protecting it from sight. Somewhat oddly, it was on an higher level compared to the seats around it, not to the point of being above the eyes of eventual spectators but still. Though the base of the stage looked like it could move up and down. There were three rows of seats, but each one was rather distant from the others, and by the look of it really, really comfortable. There seemed to be also a small monitor attached to the armrest, as well as a small side table next to each one. Then her attention went to Oberon, who was carrying a few boxes on the other end of the room. He saw her running up to him.

"Good morning" he said as he placed down the boxes.

"Good mor- actually, no. When did I end up here? And how"

"While you were sleeping. The mistress had us carry you here to get familiar with the place"

Which meant that's where she was going to perform. Though she had guessed that much already. Truth be told she wasn't sure "performance" was the right term, but she had other things to think about rather than that.

"Here" he said as he gave her a smaller box "Your breakfast. Once you're done eating you should go to the fourth room in the hallway you came from"

"Sure..."

A bit reluctant, she sat down on one of the seats -they were even more comfortable than she had guessed- and ate. Or at least, that was her intention at first, but then she decided to skip breakfast and instead headed directly to the room Oberon had pointed her to. Inside there was Eve, going through some papers. One of Ara's eyebrows twitched slightly.

"Oh, you're early"

"Was waiting for me to wake up that troublesome?"

"No, but we saved a trip by carrying you here along some other stuff. Anyway, try that on" she replied as she pointed to a small wardrobe "Once you're done call me" she said before walking out.

Ara sighed, then opened the closet. Inside was a single outfit.

"Well, this looks... really good actually..." she commented as she took it out.

It was a mix between a dress and a kimono, with partially detached, long open sleeves, a short pleated skirt -which in truth was at least twice as long as the one she usually wore- and a few long parts attached to the back for decorative purpose which resembled long feathers and tails at the same time -though maybe the latter part was just her impression-. Everything, including the shoes, was white, though there were several golden decorations and embroideries, as well as a few red ornaments, one of which was a small rope she fastened below her chest to keep the whole thing in place. Lastly, there was a rather large hairpin shaped like an open cherry blossom, golden in the middle and white on the outer petals. She took a few steps as she looked at herself in the mirror. She... liked that outfit. A lot. It was too elegant for her everyday life, true, but she couldn't deny that there wasn't a single thing she disliked about thoes clothes. There was also some underwear in the wardrobe, but she actually didn't put that on. Both because she wasn't used to wear bras underneath a kimono and because she still had the chastity belt on. While a part of her didn't exactly like to admit it, her tails looked great along those clothes, though maybe her natural black hair would have been a better fit compared to her currently white one. Eve then walked back in, maybe because Ara was taking longer than expected.

"The size should be right, but tell me if there's anything wrong with the clothes"

"No, no, actually, it's also very smooth"

"If you would change back to your usual outfit then, I'd rather not have these ruined before tomorrow" she said as she went to scroll through more papers.

"Uh..."

That sentence reminded Ara of what she had agreed to do the next day. Saying she was having second thoughts would have been a bit of an understatement, but at that point she was sure that backing off would have actually increased her debt, among other unpleasant consequences she didn't want to theorize. She took the dress off and put her clothes back on, all while standing behind a shutter of the wardrobe for at least a minimun of privacy.

"You can keep that after the performance, if you want"

"Oh, that would be... nice" she replied, though a part of her wondered if she could really get to wear them again considering what her first experience with that dress on was going to be.

"Now Ara, look at this" Eve said as she handed her a document.

She took it and, after a few seconds, moved her gaze back on Eve, confused since there was absolutely nothing on the paper. Or rather, that was what she was about to do when she felt a sting on her neck. Immediatly after she saw Moby -or was the white one Remy? She always confused the two of them- turning back from a sort of syringe to its usual shape.

"Not... again..." she said as her legs gave out and she fell on the floor.

Eve pushed her down completely, took off her chastity belt and pushed a dildo all the way inside Ara, who shrieked in surprise.

"Glad to see you're still wet" Eve commented as the toy slid in smoothly.

"T-that's... !"

She tried to resist when Eve rolled her on her back, but whatever she had injected in her neck was both really strong and fast acting as she could hardly put any strength in her arms. And so she found her rear plugged up too, her tails waving for two contrasting reasons. Eve put the chastity belt back on her to keep the two dildos in place. Moby and Remy then lifted Ara up as Eve moved her dress and bra out of the way to fix two egg vibrators against her nipples with tape, under her bra.

"This is taking it too far, Eve! Way too far!"

She was simply ignored.

"Alright. Moby" she called as the black drone moved behind Ara and turned into a sort of monoglove around her arms, from the elbows to the wrists.

"I'm quite busy today" Eve then said as she went to the door without bothering fixing Ara's clothes "If you need something, ask Remy"

After saying that, she took out a small remote, pushed a few buttons then walked out. As the white drone let go of her, Ara pretty much threw herself against the door, and groaned when the heard the sound of the key turning. She bashed her shoulder against it for a while, with little to no results. She then bashed her head against a wall, also because apparently her skipping breakfast out of fear of it containing something again was all for nothing. Within the next five minutes she realized that the syringe contained aphrodisiac as well -or at least that's what she wanted to think given how she was reacting- and the fact that she had whole dildos rather than love eggs vibrating at the lowest possible setting, combined with the fact she was still... flustered from the previous day, quickly made things worse. Not to mention the nipples, and the fact that Eve had left her basically half naked didn't help at all. She sat down on the first chair she found and did the only thing she could do, which was trying to endure the frustration. If she managed to make it to the lunch break, maybe she could do something about that situation.

Said break never arrived. She realized Eve -nor anyone else- wasn't coming back when Reby pulled something to eat and drink out from a drawer.

"You're... kidding..." she said, her three tails resting on the floor as her fox ears twitched. The white drone took a fork and moved as if to spoonfeed her, but she turned away.

At that point she started trying to hump herself against something -anything- in an attempt to get herself off -nothing was preventing her from biting her lips when needed- but the chastity belt made all of that useless. Eventually Eve walked back in, but only several hours later, way past dinner time. She looked at the table, and by the look of it Ara did eat at least something during the day. She found her sitting in a corner of the room, trying to cover herself with her legs and her now four tails, the floor beneath her visibly wet. She couldn't exactly see her face from there though. Ara, on her part, didn't seem to notice someone had walked in at all.

She only looked up when she felt an hand over her shoulder. Though the one she saw wasn't Eve, but Oberon. She probably had cried a bit, judging by her face, though he wouldn't have bet on the cause of said tears. She opened her mouth to say something, but Oberon spoke first.

"Please, don't ask that" he said as he fixed her clothes before taking her in his arms and carrying her back to the sofa she had woken up on.

She remained silent, maybe because she was focusing on enduring the unbearable tingling she was feeling.

"Do you need... something to eat? Drink? ... something?" he asked, rather unsure about that question himself.

After a few seconds of silence, during which they both avoided looking each other in the eyes, he turned around and walked to the door. As he opened it, however, Ara leaned against his back.

"T... touch me..."

"... I'm not allowed to" he replied before walking out, leaving her alone to her frustration. He was well aware of the reason why Eve had sent him instead of Ferdinand or Ophelia, but said awareness didn't lead to any further thoughts.

* * *

What little was left of the evening and a good part of the night went by painfully slowly. The vibrations never stopped, either because it was intentional or because Eve had forgotten about it, which made it even harder for Ara to fall asleep. When she woke up, however, the toys had stopped moving, for one reason of another. Sleeping with her arms bound behind her back wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was far from the biggest of her concers, and the discomfort at least served as a distraction, if only a small one. She stood up and walked to the door, managed to open it somehow and walked out, trying to not think about the drops she was leaving on the floor as she walked. Truth be told, her pantyhose was drenched at that point, or rather it had been for quite a few hours. She found Eve on the stage -the curtain was raised- looking around as if to see if there was anything wrong somewhere. Then she noticed Ara walking up to her with not exactly firm steps.

_... oh, right_ she thought as she had partially forgotten about her. The previous day had been rather busy.

She snapped her fingers and her drone turned back into it's normal form, freeing up Ara's arms. She immediatly slid an hand under her dress and removed the vibrators from her chest.

"You... !"

"I might have overdone it a bit, I apologize. Are you hungry? The show will start in a few hours, so you might want to have breakfast"

"To hell with that!"

"Maybe you need to calm down" Eve replied as her other drone brought her something to drink "Do you want a tisane?"

"No!"

She walked up the stage, next to Eve. Surprisingly enough, it was covered in short grass, as well as there being a relatively small rock. Which was actually a rather large pillow in disguise, as Eve informed her. She noticed as she walked up the -few- stairs that the stage was actually surrounded by a perfectly transparent glass, and Eve had to open the door for her as she couldn't find a way to do so herself due to the lack of visible handle. Turned out the door was a sliding one. There was actually a trapdoor on the stage as well, but Ara didn't notice it at the moment.

"Are you sure you don't want to eat?"

"I swear, Eve, this is the last time you..."

"I think you're forgetting something" she interrupted her while poking at her choker.

Ara almost literally jumped on her, but Eve managed to dodje her and started walking away.

"There's a shower in the second room. After that you should get changed"

Ara forced herself to do that, constantly repeating herself that the only reason she was putting up with that situation was to cut her debt by a whole third all at once. She took a long, long shower -also because she kept clawing against the chastity belt- dried herself up -aside from the area between her legs which just wouldn't stay dry- and went to get changed. She had been nervous the whole time, and the fact that she was going to have sex in public was probably the main reason why she was dealing so well with her frustration, the nervousness keeping her distracted. Relatively, at least. Wearing her... stage clothes, if they could be called that, made her hearth beat even faster, as that marked how little time was left. Then she headed back to the stage, but met Eve on her way there.

"Stop" she told her as she quickly unlocked the chastity belt and pulled both dildos out of Ara without so much as a warning, almost making her shriek in surprise.

"E-Eve!"

"Put these on and get on the stage" she replied as she handed her both her work mask and a pair of red, lace panties.

"... for... real?"

Eve had already gone back, leaving her there in the company of her drones. She stood still for a few moments, then put them on. No way she was doing that without any sort of underwear. She fastened the mask, made sure it wouldn't fall off and then walked to the stage -she could feel both the panties and the inner side of her thighs already getting wet-, her tails waving nervously. She noticed that Eve, as well as Oberon and Ferdinand, were all wearing their masks too, and while a small part of her was curious about Oberon's one, she couldn't bring herself to focus on something specific at the moment. Eve then called her on the stage, and she walked up to her. She could hear her own heart beating, to the point she wondered if it would have bursted out of her chest.

"Just stay here and wait. The guests will be arriving shortly, but there are still around thirty minutes before the start. Once we let the fox in, just do what you usually do at work"

"You make it sound easy..." Ara replied "... actually, where is the... fox?"

Eve then pointed at the trapdoor.

"Oh. I see"

She checked Ara's mask, then her clothes, her ears and her tails. She was about to check her privates as well, but stopped upon seeing her wetness on her thighs, then walked away closing the door behind her. Only then Ara noticed that the glass around the stage wasn't a one way mirror. In truth she wasn't sure how much that mattered, as she guessed that the lights would have been on only directly above the stage, but... in that form her sight was better, so maybe she could still see the spectators. She hated herself for not having told Eve that she'd have rather have the glass not be see through from both sides. She then slowly moved an hand between her legs, but as she did so both Moby and Remy turned into cuffs and locked her hands behind her back again.

"Oh, come on..."

Soon after, most of the lights in the room were turned off and a few people started walking in. Ara tried to not pay them too much attention as she sat on her knees, trying to calm down while hiding her hands with her tails as she didn't want them to see she was handcuffed. She did notice, however, that the people walking in had somewhat... extravagant outfits. Some were really elegant, others were simply weird, and the styles were very, very different from one another, going from completely covering the skin to being really revealing, not to talk about how many colors a few of them had managed to mix togheter in a single outfit, with... varying degrees of success. Eve talked with each of them as they entered, and while some then went to chat among themselves, others walked up to the stage and looked at her through the glass. A couple of people were wearing masks that hardly covered a third of their faces, maybe even less, but the majority had less than half of their countenance exposed. Someone then knocked on the glass, but was immediatly told off by Eve. Ara guessed all the guests had arrived as all the lights in the room were turned off aside from those above the stage. As she had feared, she could still see the customers rather well. She also noticed Oberon and Ferdinand standing on opposite ends of the room, maybe to act as guards. Eve gave a brief speech, but Ara couldn't hear it over the sound of her own heart, agitation, embarassment and, somewhat, anticipation as well. Then, just as Moby and Remy freed her hands and flew away, the trapdoor opened.

After a few seconds of silence the large, black fox walked out and onto the stage. Ara felt something weird deep within her, a sort of impulse. She resisted it, but her eyes refused to leave the fox's black fur. The creature, on its part, was reciprocating her gaze. It seemed to be more interested in her than it had been on their first meeting. It stepped forward, the trapdoor closing as soon as there was enough room for it to do so, and as the fox approached Ara its scent hit her. Her fur pricked up, her tails waved and her ears twitched as she took in the odor. She got on her feet and took a step forward, the aching between her legs growing even stronger than before. The guests could surely see her wetness on her thighs as she and the fox stood in front of each other. It then started to smell her, and she did the same, at least until it started walking in circle around her. It brushed its head against her tails, then touched them with its paws as if to inspect them. Ara then turned around and placed an hand on its head. The fox bared its sharp fangs, but nothing else, so she moved her fingers over its fur. In response it licked her neck, and that gesture made her feel even more flustered.

The fox then stood on two legs to more easily rest a paw on her ears, which in response twitched several times. Ara's gaze fell on one of the onlookers for a brief moment, but the fox's scent immediatly catched her attention again. It then sat down, as if to wait for something. A part of her coulnd't believe what she was about to do. The other simply no longer cared. She turned around and got on the ground, on all fours before lifting her skirt up. With her butt raised and pointed to the fox, she moved her panties aside and spread her labia open, her fingers getting wet with her own juices in the process. Her heart was beating so fast she feared it might burst at any moment. The fox leaned forward, and she could feel its hot breath as it smelled her privates. It then ran its tongue over her entrance, making her shiver a bit, her fingers digging into the ground. The second time it liked her Ara had a weak orgasm, her teeth digging into her lips as the pleasure slowly ran though her body, with the only result of making her even more excited. She smiled under her mask as the fox got on top of her and placed its member against her entrance. Then wanted to bash her head against the ground for doing that.

With a single, quick motion the fox penetrated Ara with its whole length. For one reason or another she made no attempt at holding her voice in as jolts of pleasure ran through her whole system, her muscles tensing up as her tails stood straight up, her right hand grasping her thigh as her fingernails dug into her flesh, a bit more painfully than she needed them to but control wasn't exactly easy to achieve with her current state of mind. She felt her inner walls tighten around the fox's large member before it could even start moving. When it pulled itself back for the first time she trembled, the stimulation somehow feeling much stronger than it was supposed to. At last, it began thrusting.

Ara almost lost her self control -that is to say, even that she still had- as the large member going back and forth inside her sent jolts up her spine. For a good while she remained relatively still, her butt raised while her face was basically resting on the ground as the fox mounted her, but as the pleasure started to build up she began fingering herself with one hand, or rather she tried, but since her mate was filling her up completely she resorted to her clit. Her tails started wrapping around the fox's large body, and two actually intertwined with its as her breathing became faster and faster, until her whole body trembled, shook by the surging pleasure running through her. Her hair had moved around quite a bit, leaving her neck exposed, and the fox decided to lick it. The contrast between its warm tongue and its relatively cold saliva felt oddly intense, especially when it slid its tongue underneath her dress and over her back. Her hand temporarily stopped moving, the stimulations starting to pile up too much, until she clawed at her own arm as another orgasm ran deep within her before emerging, causing her muscles to shiver. The feeling lasted for a relatively short time and Ara almost completely fell to the ground. Catching her breath, however, proved to be noticeably hard as the fox was still moving.

"W-wait a -aahh-... a momen -aahh!- ..."

Her tails started wiggling as she clenched her fists on the grass and soil, trying to regulate her breathing a bit or, at least, take more air into her lungs. Then the fox bit down on one of her twitching ears, not with too much strength but still firmly enough to make her shout, if anything for the surprise. Still sensitive from, well, everything, the feeling of its tongue touching the tip of her ear at fist and coiling around it later pushed her into an almost confused state in which she almost forgot what was going on. As a sort of side effect, that got her to spend a good while no longer thinking about what was happening and simply enjoying herself, her voice running free for the time being. And the partial lack of air actually made it even more intense, albeith a little dangerous. That said, one of the reasons Eve was there was also to make sure herself things wouldn't get out of hand, and her not doing anything meant things were going smoothly.

Ara had gone through at least one more orgasm before her gaze fell on the masked face of one of the customers. Suddenly she was reminded of everything. Her self awareness skyrocketed, a good portion of her usual shyness suddenly returning as her confusion passed. Maybe as a coincidence, maybe exactly because of that, she felt herself tightening around the fox's member, its mouth letting go of her ear only to close down on the other one. Then, suddenly, she felt her mate penetrate her even deeper than before. For a brief moment she felt a sharp, intense jolt of pain, as if her cervix had been forced open, making her let out a scream. Then another, much weaker pain hit her, this time right at her entrance, as if the base of its member was noticeably larger than the rest. Which was exactly the case. She could feel the fox's quick, hot breaths on her neck and ears as its knot, now completely inside her, started to swell even more. Coupled with her inner walls clenching down on it, she found herself effectively locked together with the fox. Truth be told, had she had a normal human body that'd not only have been way, way more painful, but it would also have caused serious damage to her. She could tell its member had been pulsating for quite a while, but as it started throbbing she understood what was about to happen.

She tried to move away at least a bit, but the knot -and the fact that the fox had once again taken her ear in its mouth- held her firmly in place as the creature's seed started pouring so deeply inside her she wasn't sure if what she was feeling was pain, pleasure or -more likely- a mix of both. The fox's breath had gotten ragged as well, though nowhere near as much as Ara's. She looked around briefly and saw both Eve and Oberon staring at her -Ferdinand was on the other end of the theatre-, though she couldn't really read their expressions due to the masks. While it was no longer thrusting, the creature's member never stopped throbbing, and due to its size that alone proved to be a rather powerful stimulation. She used that time of -relative- inactivity to regulate her breath, this time with success, and then unconsciously brought an hand over her privates and started playing with her clit again until the fox finished releasing its seed. She felt its knot beginning to deswell, but her mate pulled out of her while it was still half enlarged. Ara let out a particularly loud moan which sounded a bit like a scream.

The fox then licked her a couple of times, which brought her right on the edge of another orgasm before taking a step or two back, Ara's tails too weak to hold it in place as they uncoiled from its body. Part of her was thinking that she had done her job and that she could -and should- end it there. Another part of her, however, still felt itchy, and had every intention of having said itch scratched. She turned around to face the fox as she got on her knees, her body trembling slightly, and brought an hand between her legs as she tried to ignore the part of her that was overly aware of being watched by other people. She could feel the hot seed on her fingers as she pushed them inside herself, the white fluid oozing out of her. The fox stared at Ara for a few seconds, then leaned forward and started licking her, from her chest to her ears. Ara breathed in its scent, her tails waving behind her, her excitement increased once more as she ran an hand over its head.

She then got back on her feet, albeith her legs weren't exactly firm at the moment, and went to the fake rock. She sat on its edge, facing the fox. More than a pillow, that was a small but tall mattress. Not the most comfortable one, but still. She spread her legs as she invited it in with her open arms again, and the fox walked up to her. It placed its head between her legs to smell her, then ran its tongue over her entrance a few times again, making her shiver. She then leaned on her back as she pulled her labia opens once more, her tails waving with anticipation. Her mate apparently took her up on the offer as it got in position on top of her. Shortly after Ara felt its whole length penetrate her once more. Maybe because she was in a far more comfortable position, the pleasure seemed to be even greater than before. She arched her back as the fox started thrusting. She brought her hands to her chest and closed them around her chest, then tried to slide them under her dress, somewhat clumsily, before simply pulling the cloth away. The kimono ended up between her breasts, leaving them exposed as she started to pinch her nipples.

The fox stared at her for a while, without stopping his back and forth motion, his drool dropping from its mouth to her chest. For some reason she found that really exciting. It bringing its mouth down and starting to lick her breasts, however, was what really brought her over the edge. Her body trembled as another orgasm shook it from within, her tails -at one point her fifth one had appeared as well- wrapping around her mate as she -maybe unconsciously- tried to adjust her position with her hands to have the fox hit her sweet spots, her teeth digging into her lips. She wasn't sure how long that lasted, but her climax had deprived her of almost all the stamina she had left. The fox, on its part, had started to bite on her breasts, albeith gently, and she could feel its member had started pulsating. She tried to take in some air, struggling against her own moans, her voice completely out of her control, until the fox's knot began to swell again. She felt it pushing its member as deep inside her as it could, and shortly after the two of them were once more locked together. Ara felt its throbbing and, a few moments later, its seed began to fill her insides again.

To make up for the lack of thrusting, she started to grope herself as she played with her clit. Probably because in that position her gaze naturally fell on the fox rather than on the guests looking at them, she seemed to act even more uninhibitedly than before. The fox leaned in a bit closer and started to lick her ears again, and Ara dug her nails in her chest as another climax began to get closer and closer. The throbbing became stronger, or maybe she felt that way because of her own tightening, and her hands got rougher with herself, until the pleasure exploded, shaking her whole body, almost causing her to convulse, her ears twitching wildly as her tails either stood straight up or wrapped around the fox again. She ran completely out of breath at one point, the ecstasy almost stopping her breathing, her shaking apparently causing the fox to release even more seed within her. She had to claw at herself as hard as she could, actually ripping some skin off, to override the pleasure with pain, in order to get to breathe. Maybe there were other ways to do that, but she wasn't exactly in her best state of mind at the moment.

That said, even though her climax had one way or another come to an end, the fox wasn't yet done. It kept ejaculating, until Ara could eventually feel her womb filling up completely and starting to swell a bit as the warm fluid filled what little gaps were left between her inner walls and the foreign object resting inside them. The feeling of fullness became overbearing, and she started to really worry about the quantity she could take in. Luckily, the fox finished before it became -too?- painful, though her belly was already visibly swollen. She felt the knot dwingling before her mate began to pull out, her insides clenching down on it as if not wanting to let go, which brough another wave of pleasure upon her. The moment it finished parting with her body, its seed began overflowing from her.

Ara remained still for a short while, then sat on her knees -without getting off the fake rock- and stared at the fox for a short while, one hand moving between her legs to gently caress her privates, her tails tiredly waving behind her. She was feeling rather dizzy, and most likely due to that she fell forward, ending up against the fox that was sitting right in front of her. It brought a leg over her as it closed its tail over Ara while she, maybe unconsciously, did the same, in what strongly resembled an embrace. Shortly after, the curtain began to drop, granting some privacy to her as well as marking the end of the performance.

Eve stood up, the guests doing so as well, and after an applause that lasted a good while they started conversating, Ferdinand keeping watch while Oberon walked on stage, past the lowered curtain. A few left almost immediatly after that, but the majority remained there for quite a while to chat. Some even asked if it was possible to... let's say privately rent the performer for some time, though Eve said that it wasn't part of her contract and turned them down. Around half an hour later everyone was gone. Eve left Ara in Oberon's care and Ferdinand to clean up the place as she headed back to the menagerie. The performance had lasted for three hours, more or less, and since Ophelia was busy guiding Rena around the fair -the elf didn't know about Ara's public performance- the menagerie had remained closed for most of the day, though considering how much she had gained from that show she couldn't say she had lost money, actually she had gained a lot more than she'd have with a day of sale.

Ara would have most likely spent the rest of the day resting, and tomorrow -if she wanted- Eve would have had Oberon show her around the fair.


	15. A Little Present for Ara

**A Little Present for Ara  
**

Whether Ara slept in more than usual or simply decided to not get out of her bed the next day might be a topic worth of discussion, but this probably isn't the best place for that. As a matter of fact, anyway, Oberon didn't get any reply when he knocked on the door of her room a little past midday. He thought about it for a while, then decided to walk in anyway as the room wasn't locked. Her performance clothes were lying on the floor, while her usual ones were placed on a chair. The curtains were closed, and by the look of it Ara was actually really sleeping. He called out her name a few times, but since she didn't wake up from that he got closer and raised an hand. Shortly after Ara woke up, a weird feeling in her mouth. She slowly got up, still dizzy, and then she saw Oberon standing next to her bed, one of his arms outstretched towards her. She followed it with her eyes as she realized that what she was feeling in her mouth was actually his index. At a loss of words, she simply stared at him.

"Good day" he said as he pulled his hand back.

"G... good... wha... "

Then Oberon moved his index, partially covered with her saliva, to his mouth. At which point Ara almost literally jumped at him and grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Wait! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Does it troubles you?"

"Of course it does!"

"... why?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"It does!"

"I... " Oberon started replying, then decided that maybe it was better to drop the subject "Lunch will be ready in a short while. If you want to come down like that, there are no customers at the moment in the menagerie"

"Like that?"

Her face turned red as she remembered that she had gone to sleep wearing only her underwear. She let go of Oberon and reached for her coat, using it to cover herself as much as possible. Without saying anything else, Oberon walked back downstairs. A few minutes later Ara entered the kitchen as well, though the only ones there were Eve and Ferdinand.

"Sleepyhead as usual" the owner of the place commented before taking a bite of a dish Ara couldn't really recognize.

"Nice to see you too" Ara replied, suppressing her thoughts while taking a seat.

"The performance was a success, you should be proud of yourself"

"That's nothing to be proud about!"

"Why? It was a job and you did it perfectly"

"Ugh..."

She tried to ignore that by eating, also because she was really hungry.

"I'll have Oberon show you around the fair later if you want"

"I'm... not sure I want to show myself around after yesterday..."

"There is a place you would probably like though"

"And said place would be... ?"

* * *

Much to her own surprise, the remaining days of the fair turned out really nice for Ara. She actually almost only ever went to what was called the "Tea House", despite tea not really being the main reason why people went there. Said reason was actually chess. And while there never were that many people there, it also was never really empty. As a matter of facts, Ara ended up causing more people to gather there, partially because the rumor of a newcomer going undefeated -in best of three matches, that is- at the Tea House sprout interest. But mainly because Ara refused to play at even the most -sexually- tame variation of chess aviable -that would be strip chess- and only had normal matches instead. That said, she did try out a few variations that didn't involve anything... embarassing. As weird as it may sound, that was incredibly rare at the fair. She was actually a bit troubled by how many people started to gather to look at her play during the last few days, but nowhere near enough to stop coming. Oberon wondered if he should have started playing as well. By the last day of the fair, Ara became renowned as the Chaste Butterfly -due to the motifs on her mask as well as the hairpin she used during the fair- of the Tea House. Eve chuckled whenever she heard the first part of that name though, and Ara herself was a bit... embarassed by that nickname.

Oberon, on his part, was relieved that Ara never got word of neither the Torture House nor the Slave Dealer. Or any of the other similar activities present there. He was sure things would have gone south really fast if she found out those activities were held there, and because of that he had tried to keep her away from those places, thankfully succeeding at it.

Eventually, the fair reached its last day. Eve, Rena and Ara were having dinner together at the menagerie. There were a couple of boxes which were left unsold, because those who preordered them either couldn't come to the fair due to other commitments or simply forgot about it, but aside from that everything went smoothly. Rena decided to go to sleep early, while the other two stayed up a while longer. A long, long while. It actually started with a simple game of chess, since it had been... probably a few months since the last time they played, and Eve actually was one of the few people who could match Ara at that. At the third game, however, the owner of the menagerie suggested to drink some alcohol whenever one of them lost a piece. After the fourth game, maybe because Ara was getting tired as it was almost midnight, she managed to convince her. Eventually, things escalated and Ara found herself in quite the predicament.

* * *

Ara had basically passed out at one point, not really because she had lost too many pieces but because the alcohol Eve had picked was really, really strong. When she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was a glass of water being brought to her mouth. Still dazed, she sort of went along with it and let whoever was holding the glass slip the drink down her throath, not as forcefully as that sentence made it sound though. Turns out that wasn't water, water neither tasted that bad nor cleaned away drunkness that quickly. Being mostly back to her senses, the first thing Ara noticed was that the one in front of her was Eve -her face was a bit flushed-, and that they were in her room. Immediatly after that she realized that she was tied.

_No, not again..._

Rather than simply tied, she was actually suspended. Her arms were bound in a box tie behind her back, the rope also squeezing a bit the base of her breasts, while her ankles were tied rather tightly to her thighs. To add to that, she was actually in her underwear.

"Eve, what are yoaaahh!"

Her question was interrupted when Eve lowered her with a crank, causing her to drop on something cold and hard, and also rather damp. She looked down for the first time -she probably should have done so earlier- and saw what seemed to be a wooden horse, just made of ice. That most likely wasn't ice though, it was too warm to be, albeith it was definitively colder than her skin. And since the crank had been left unlocked, that was the only thing keeping Ara up.

"E-Eve, what's this?!"

She walked up to her and placed an hand on her shoulder.

"Didn't we agree to have a little fun?"

"... I beg you, whatever you made me drink earlier, take some yourself"

"Eheheh" she replied, her cheecks red from the alcohol -how did that even affect her in the first place?- as she ran a finger on Ara's belly "You're cute when you blush"

"I'm serious, Eve, drink some of th-"

For the second time she was interrupted, though this time it was because Eve had pushed her back. Granted, the... icey horse wasn't pointed, but with her whole weight resting on it, the pressure on her... privates was rather strong. That, and the horse was rather short, meaning she'd fall down were she to be pushed to far in one direction. Eve laughed softly again as she moved Ara back and fort, enjoying her troubled face as she forced her voice to remain down her troath. At first Ara thought she had started sweating, but then realized it was actually the ice that had already started to melt, albeith slowly. Relatively slowly. She felt like it was actually making her feel hotter though.

"E-Eve, this isn't ice right?"

"The short version is that it's frozen aphrodisiac"

_I knew it..._

She then moved behind Ara and cupped her breasts, poking at her nipples trough her bra.

"E-Eve, stop, really..."

"You're enjoying this though" she replied while looking at the white that had started to appear on Ara's hair.

She tried to lift herself up from the block of ice with her legs, but it was too slippery for that. Eve, on her part, kept fondling her breasts, occasionally licking her ears or poking at her clit through her panties, wet for more reasons than the ice melting. The aphrodisiac, combined with Eve's constant foreplay, was proving rather effective, at least judging by her white hair and red eyes. At one point, however, she pulled Ara's panties aside -almost tearing them due to her position- and shortly after she felt something poking against her entrance.

"W-wait, what's that?" she asked, worried. Her breath was a bit ragged.

"Take a guess" Eve replied, chuckling. Though the fact that that block of ice wasn't exactly see-through, combined with Ara's position, made it pretty much impossible for her to actually see what was exactly beneath her. Not that she didn't have an idea at that point.

In a relatively short time her fears were confirmed, the tip of a dildo slowly emerging from the ice as it kept melting. It had probably been an hour since she had woken up in that situation, and at that point she was rather... frustrated, but she felt like asking Eve to be rougher would have had unpleasant consequences. That, and it would have been a bit too embarassing. When she suddenly grabbed her ears -her fox ears- however, Ara let out her voice. She then tried to get her composure back, and at the same time Eve grabbed her hips too and started moving her back and fort over the dildo, causing it to bump into her privates repeatedly. To make things worse, the whole horse had started to vibrate, albeith weakly.

"Having fun?" Eve asked.

"S... shut up..."

She then slid an hand under her panties and started softly teasing her entrance, though Ara managed to not squirm, to avoid making the pressure on her crotch even worse. Eve had stopped moving her, and she started trying to adjust herself over the vibrator, hoping Eve wouldn't notice. The penetration was excruciatingly slow, and added to everything else it was rather surprising that Ara was still managing to not ask Eve for a more... intense stimulation. However, she almost jumped when she felt her ears being bitten. She slipped off position, and since Eve closed her hands over her chest she couldn't even bring herself back on top of the dildo.

"E-Eve, let me go... for real..." she said, her cheeks red.

"No-pe. Eh eh"

Ara groaned -mentally, but maybe vocally as well- when she felt the dildo start to slide against her belly, meaning it was too late to get on top of it. To make things worse, Eve was now pushing her up against it, resulting in her clit being bressed right against it, to make sure she was getting as frustrated as possible from the weak vibrations. After what probably was another couple of hours, the ice had mostly melt, and the dildo was almost completely out of it. Eve had tinkered a bit with the crank to make sure Ara wouldn't end up too low. She had changed the way she was teasing her, going from fondling her chest to licking her belly to caressing the base of her tail -she had grown one, the second one probably being anything but far from appearing as well- , to caressing her thighs, to several other things. Shortly after, Ara found herself resting pretty much only on top of a sort of rather high stool on which the dildo was attached, with some of her weight also being supported by the ropes. The aphrodisiac had melted pretty much completely and, as if to make fun of her heightened sensitivity, the vibrators had grown weaker.

"So, Ara" Eve said "Is there anything you want at the moment?"

It wasn't the first time she asked her that, but rather surprisingly Ara had managed to keep herself from asking for it. Up to that moment, at least.

"I... j-just... put it... i-inside..."

"Put what inside?" Eve asked -her drunkness had actually gone away since quite a long while, but that didn't mean she wasn't having fun-.

"The d... dil... the dildo..."

"You just had to ask"

Then Eve moved behind Ara, out of her field of view. Which meant Ara didn't see her putting on a strap-on. A few moments later she felt her pulling her panties aside as something poked her butt.

"W-wait, what are you -mmhh!"

She tried to hold her voice in as the second dildo entered her rear, her tail waving nervously as her ears twitched.

"Just what you asked, Ara" Eve replied as the strap-on started vibrating, with as much strength as the first one.

"T-this is not what I meant!"

"I'm afraid you should have been more specific then"

Eve then started moving, but slowly, far too slowly for Ara to get close to an orgasm from that.

"E-Eve, pleas -mgh?!"

"Don't act spoiled now, you had your chance" Eve said as she fastened a gag around her mouth.

At that point Ara tried to scream, much to Eve's delight. She kept teasing Ara like that, occasionally bringing her on the verge of orgasm and promptly stopping whenever she got too close. Well, Ara wasn't in any sort of pain at the moment so even if she did accidentally manage to get off, it would have simply heightened her frustration. Eve laughed softly when Ara grew a second tail. Eventually, however, she got tired of that, so she took off the strap-on and used the straps to sort of fix it in place in her rear. It wasn't exactly firm but given the situation it would have probably been enough, she couldn't shake it off anyway. Instead she blindfolded Ara, right before taking off the gag.

"I just remembered I have a few things to do, Ara. I'll be back in a short while"

"W-wait, you can't..."

Then she heard her footsteps.

"Eve! Eve, stop! Eve!"

Ara's screams fell on deaf ears however, and she heard the door opening then closing. Obviously, both the dildos were still vibrating weakly. She squirmed around, with enough force to almost fall down, the ropes being the only reason she didn't, the stool swaying beneath her. Aside from all the stimulation, she was also tired. She had no idea what time it was, but she was sure it was way past midnight. She could feel her thighs being drenched with her own juices, and while she couldn't see it, the floor was wet as well, and not only because of the melted ice. She tried to move around again, this time not to get out of the restraints but to see if she could somehow heighten the stimulation, maybe by humping the dildo, and that failed too. By the time Eve came back, Ara had... actually passed out, her two tails lying on the floor, her chest calmly moving up and down with every breath. She quickly ran over the last few hours and realized that probably she had given her too much of that drink to make her sober up, and a side effect was exhaustion after a few hours. Well, that or Ara was simply too tired, that was a rather plausible possibility as well.

She had Oberon -who had been sitting against the wall behind Ara the whole time- untie her legs, remove the dildo from her rear, place her on the bed, then use another rope to tie the knot behind her back to the bed to make sure she wouldn't get off it. Then he pulled the curtains on the sides of the bed to block off vision, and lastly he went back to sit on the edge of the room, out of Ara's sight. Eve, on her part, got on top of the bed and slowly slid two fingers inside her, the palm of her hand turned upwards, and started gently rubbing the upper wall. When her fingers found the right spot, Ara immediatly woke up with a loud moan, her tails standing straight up as she instinctively tried to get up. She failed at it though, if only for Eve holding her down.

"E-Eve!"

"Ara" she replied simply as she lowered her face.

Her attempts at getting away crumbled into inutility when Eve grabbed her hips and brought them up a bit, just enough for her entrance to meet her mouth. She started sucking and licking her through her underwear, causing Ara to forcefully squirm against her, more teasing being the last thing she wanted at the moment. Then, suddenly, Eve stopped.

"Let's make a bet, Ara. If..."

"I don't want to" she interrupted her as she closed her legs to protect herself.

"If you want another five hours of edging, that's fine for me" she replied as she placed her hands on Ara's knees to pull her legs back open.

"W-wait! Not... not that..."

"Perfect"

Eve then got off the bed and went to grab a couple of things. When she came back into Ara's field of vision -she had managed to get on her knees in the meanwhile- she put a chair in front of the bed, where Ara could see it, and placed on top of it an hourglass.

"If you can hold your voice in and not moan until the time is up, I'll give you a nice present and also let you keep the belt off for one more day"

"W... what if I can't?"

"Just do your best" she replied as she turned the hourglass upside down.

Right after saying that she got on the bed, went behind Ara and started fondling her breasts. Her nipple were still erect from before. That lasted for hardly a couple of minutes though, as Eve's hands then moved down, her fingers sliding underneath her underwear and into her butt. Ara almost jumped, her ears twitching a few times, but she managed to not make any sounds. Things got more difficult when Eve pushed her other hand against her entrance and started slowly rubbing her clit. The aphrodisiac's effect had yet to fade, and combined with the prolonged edging she had gone through, those mild stimulus were enough to get her close to an orgasm. She started biting her lips as the pleasure got more intense, and she tried to focus completely on the hourglass to distract herself, with mixed results though. Then Eve suddenly turned Ara around, taking the hourglass out of her sight as she pushed her down, resulting in her butt sticking out in the air, and in that position she slid two fingers inside both of her entrances.

Ara almost said something but then immediatly closed her teeth on her lips to stop herself from doing that. When something started vibrating inside her panties she almost pierced her lips from the surprise. She could feel her orgasm getting dangerously close, and... were she to keep biting her lips, it might have felt too intense for her to actually hold back her voice. On the other hand, she needed something to help her remain as silent as possible. And so she switched from her lips to the blankets, mere moments before the pleasure started to spread through her body in waves, her tails trembling slightly as a groan echoed through her mind, the fact that she had willingly given up a satisfaying orgasm after that much teasing making the whole thing feel even worse.

Eve then moved the vibrating egg from Ara's entrance to her insides, and started rubbing it against her walls. She started to hear a few sounds from her, but they were probably too weak to be called moans, and decided to let them slide. She then started caressing her butt, before spanking her a couple of times. She almost jumped, but still kept her voice extremely low. Eve was quite entertained by that. Leaving the vibrating egg where it was, she turned Ara on her back and placed another one on her entrance, right before lifting one of her legs up and pushing her own entrance against hers. And then she started rubbing herself against Ara, who in the process had accidentally let go of the sheets and was now back to biting her lips, which were actually a bit too much in pain. Eve then grabbed Ara's face to make sure she wouldn't look away, which made the situation even more embarassing for her. She had never even done anything like that before, but the fact that the way Eve moved made it look like they were having penetrative sex made her even more flustered.

"You're not bad..." the menagerie's owner commented, the faintest shade of red on her cheeks.

She kept moving as she placed a third vibrators against both herself and Ara -though she still had one inside her and a second one underneath her panties- and turned it on, the added stimulus taking Ara dangerously close to a second climax. She was sweating, and quite a lot, but Eve didn't seem to mind. Maybe to provoke Ara, maybe to make a little fun of her, or maybe simply because it was a natural reaction -as natural as it could be for someone made of metal- Eve started letting out a few moans, weaks but perfectly audible, and they got louder when she pushed herself against Ara with more strength, pushing both vibrators even more against her privates as a consequence.

At that point Ara was in a panic. She knew her next orgasm was close, at most a few minutes away, and she feared it would have broken her control over her own voice. Maybe if she managed to turn around just enough to bite down on the sheets again... she tried, but Eve held her in place. The pleasure was rising, her limbs were starting to tremble weakly, her ears were twitching. Her tails -all three of them- were waving as much as they could considering they were partially beneath the two girls. At the last moment, Ara decided that she had a better chance at keeping her voice down if the orgasm didn't felt too good, and so let go of her lips. A few seconds later, her whole body trembled as the pleasure spreaded like a wave, from her entrance all the way to her fingertips. And then she moaned. Her mind froze, but her voice, once released, kept coming out for as long as Eve kept rubbing their privates against each other, the vibrations constantly sending additional jolts of pleasure through Ara's body until the motion stopped. Shortly after, all the toys were removed.

"Ah... I... w-what... now..."

"Congratulations, Ara" Eve said as she helped her get up while pointing to the hourglass "Time ran out a short while before you started moaning"

"..."

She headbutted Eve, and while she did hit her for once, who got more hurt from that was arguable, though flesh against metal didn't sound like a fair match up. Not that Ara was normal herself, though.

"H-hey now..."

"Why didn't you stop then?!" Ara shouted. She was angry also because she ruined her orgasm herself for nothing, though she avoided mentioning that.

"I need some relief too every now and then, you know" Eve replied as she adjusted her clothes "Here, I'll walk you to your room"

"I can go there by myself. If you'd be so kind as to undo these" Ara said as she turned around to show the ropes around her arms.

"Just let us get there first, alright?"

"Oh, come on..."

"Trust me"

"... for real?"

She really wasn't sure she had too much trust left in Eve. Maybe.

"Just follow me, alright?" she asked as she walked to the door.

Ara followed her, albeith rather unwillingly, her tails giving away some of her annoyance. And frustration too, that was anything but gone. She walked out of the room without ever seeing Oberon, who on his part was ever so sligthly annoyed at Eve having ordered him to simply sit there in silence. In case something happened, she said.

While they were on their way to Ara's room, she looked out of a window whose curtain wasn't completely closed. By the look of it the sun would have come up in around an hour, which would explain why she was so damn tired.

"Here" Eve said as she opened the door.

After they had both walked in, she started undoying the ropes. Meanwhile, Ara's gaze fell on something.

"... what's that?" she asked as she forced herself to stay awake for a little longer, her eyes pointed to a rather large box sitting right next to her bed.

"Your present, of course. I was going to give it to you regardless of the results of our little bet"

"Why you..."

"Here, done" Eve said as she finished taking off the ropes. Ara's arms were a bit sore, but not enough for it to be a real problem.

"I left the instructions here" she said as she took a few sheets of paper from the table and handed them to Ara "I'll be on my way now"

"Instructions?"

Left alone, Ara wondered whether she should have opened the box or went straight to sleep. She decided to at least give a look at the instructions to see what was inside there, curiosity momentarily winning over sleepiness. The first line said "I've planted a small ai in it, but it can only perform very simple actions. Anything more complex and it would no longer be usable as a replacement body, and a completely new one takes both time and money to make. So while it's more interactive than a doll, it's still not that much better in that regard. For my standards at least"

"... eh... ?"

Partially confused, partially curious, she kept reading.

* * *

Around three and a half hours later. Eve was in the kitchen when Rena walked in. There was a cable going from one of the sockets to Eve's head, but it wasn't the first time the elf saw her recharging herself that way. According to her, it was more efficent but less pleasant than eating.

"Up already?"

"I'm leaving" Eve replied as she unplugged the cable "I have other things to take care of"

Which explained why both Ferdinand and Ophelia were waiting on the door, each carrying two suitcases.

"Sure. And... what's that?" the elf asked while pointing to a metal box resting against a wall, large enough for a person to easily -maybe not comfortably- fit in, a small groove running right in the middle of it.

"An experiment. If things go well it won't cause you any problem, don't worry about it"

"... which means... ?"

"Exactly what I said"

"Yeah, sure... where is Ara?"

"Probably sleeping in her room" she replied as she gestured Oberon to go check on her.

He did so. He got no answer when he knocked on the door, but considering how last night went, he wanted to make sure she was at least sleeping on the bed and not on the floor next to it. While not really the norm, it wasn't too weird for Ara to roll around in her sleep when really tired. At least that's what he said to himself. And so he opened the door and walked in. The lights were turned off. As for Ara, she was sleeping on the bed, although she wasn't under the blankets and her tails were gone. There were two things, however, that caught his attention. The first one was that she was wearing only her bra, her panties and every other piece of clothing lying on the floor. The second one was that she was hugging his substitute body -the one with the appearance of a... very young male- as if it was a small body pillow. He saw the instruction sheets on the table and gave them a quick read. Then he took the key of the room, left it on the table then walked out, locking the door behind him with another key, without giving himself enough time to notice anything else. When he walked back to the kitchen, Eve was gone. Rena, instead, was having breakfast.

"She's still sleeping I guess"

"She locked herself in. I think she doesn't want to be disturbed" he replied as he took a bottle of wine -a strong wine-, sat down and started drinking.

"... you know, this might be the first time I see you drink something"

"Is that so..."

For the first time in his life -and maybe taking example from Ophelia- he drank the whole bottle in one single gulp.


	16. Nice and Too Clean

**Nice and Too Clean  
**

Ara woke up... rather late that day. As in, way past midday. Actually, when Oberon knocked at her room again it was to call her for dinner. The sound of his knuckles against the door did wake her up, and probably because she was still kinda sleepy, she managed to tell him she'd come downstairs soon before realizing how she was sleeping. Which is why he had already gone back to the kitchen when she nearly screamed, having realized what she had... done with Oberon's replacement body. She frantically looked for her panties, but when she found them she realized they were still soaked and so dropped them under the bed, taking out a new pair instead. She got dressed as quickly as possible, then hid the body pillow -let's call it that- back inside the box. Then she realized that Oberon and Rena would have gotten suspiscious were she to walk down in a messy state -would they?-, and decided that fixing herself up a bit was indeed a good idea. Eventually, she grabbed the door knob and tried to open it, only to find out that it didn't move.

"... wait, did I lock it?" she wondered as she looked around, her gaze quickly falling on the key.

She didn't remember that, in all honesty, but considering how tired she was and the fact that the door was indeed locked, she must have simply forgotten about doing it. Overall it had been a rather long while since Oberon had called her, and Rena was wondering if she had fallen asleep again when she saw her entering the kitchen.

"This is excessive even for you" the elf commented.

"Well, I... can't really deny that..." she replied, with no intention of telling her what really happened.

She looked at Oberon for a brief moment, then the image of the... other Oberon, currently lying underneath her bed, flashed in her mind, causing her to avert her gaze. Thankfully, neither of them seemed to notice. Dinner itself went by rather uneventfully. Ara remained in the kitchen for a bit more than Rena, who actually came back around ten minutes later. Though this time she was in her bathrobe, and judging by how she was dripping she had just come out of the shower.

"How come we're out of soap?"

"Ah! I... think I used what was left yesterday... I forgot to tell about it, sorry"

"Shops are closed this week" Oberon then said.

They both turned towards him.

"What?"

"There is a sort of holiday when the fair ends. Until next monday, all shops will be closed"

"Well, I guess I'll put my work on hold for a while" Rena said. Some... parts of it were likely to leave a strong... scent on her, and she really didn't want to go a week smelling like... things.

"Does that mean mine will be on hold too?" Ara asked, a bit of hope in her voice.

"Actually" Oberon replied "If you go back to work tomorrow, we can solve this problem right away"

"Oh, that" the elf commented.

"W... what do you mean with "that"?"

* * *

Next day came oddly quickly. As usual, Ara hadn't been given much of any information about what his next partner would be, and while at that point she was used to Oberon keeping said informations to himself, she was actually surprised Rena did the same, because "this one is really beautiful and I don't want to spoil the surprise", so the elf had told her. Lunch had gone by since less than an hour when she had stepped into the elevator with Oberon, who was actually carrying a backpack filled with empty bottles. They had left the chastity belt in her room, which meant that, for once, she was wearing a full set of underwear to work. Though at that point that felt weirder than having the belt on. They walked to the fourth room of the tenth floor. The antechamber was full of bottles, much like the ones Oberon had with him, and they were just as empty.

"So... should I keep the coat on?" she asked, if only just to say something.

It had been quite a while -relatively at least- since her last session, and probably because of that she felt a bit more nervous than the last times. Probably.

"It might be better"

"Alright then..."

And so they walked in. The inside of the dome was a lush, vibrating forest of bamboo and trees she knew to be deciduous. And judging by the slope of the land that probably was meant to be a mountainous area. In fact, Ara could see a few tall, rocky spires from where they were, not to mention the several bodies of fresh water and waterfalls, some very small, other considerably larger.

"This place... looks a lot like my homeland" she said, taken aback.

"Does it?"

"Absolutely"

"Your homeland must be a nice place"

"Yes. Yes, it is" she replied, without realizing that she was smiling.

"There isn't much fauna -if any- but we can take the long road if you want to gaze at the scenery"

"That would be... nice"

"This way then"

As they walked, Ara noticed a few differences, mainly trees and plants she didn't recognize, but only a few. She could name most of the vegetation. The landscape itself felt familiar, the steep ground and the shadows casted by the largest trees reminding her of her village. Especially the sound of the water flowing. There really weren't any birds nor insects, though she wasn't sure she really missed the latter. Then she wondered if she knew what creature was hosted there, after all there was a chance she knew it considering the place. Then again, it was somehow related to soap, which sounded rather... well, odd. Then it hit her.

"Wait" she told Oberon as she stopped "How did you say the one living here is called?" she asked, though he had never told her that in the first place.

He thought about pointing that detail out for a few moments, which then became seconds, until he decided that maybe that wasn't the case.

"We're almost there" he replied "Just a couple of minutes"

"This is the last time" she said "I'm tired of having to go in without knowing what I'll have to deal with. Really"

"... I understand"

Shortly after, the two of them walked into a rather large glade hidden between the cliffs. That, combined with the particularly large trees, made the whole area rather dark despite it still being the middle of the day. There, lying on the ground next to a small waterfall which ended in a somewhat large pond surrounded by rocks, was Ara's next partner. And as she had started to suspect, she knew what it was. Its body was long, slender and covered in scales. Scales of a light gold and pink that somewhat resembled those of a fish. Its chest and the lower side of its belly and tail, as well as the side of its legs, however, were covered in a dark purple, thick fur. Its hind legs had three hooked claws each, while the front ones had four, smaller claws. Its head had a long snout and was adorned by many beautiful fin-like appendages, pink with yellow markings. Those fins also formed a crest on its back, and went all the way to its tail, overall giving him a slightly spiked look.

"A... mizutsune..." she said.

"A mizutsune" Oberon repeated "Does it trouble you?"

"W-well... how should I put it... when I was little, I really wanted to get close to one. They are just... beautiful, and not even aggressive. Most of the time. Just... I mean, I'm happy to get to see one up close, but... this really isn't how I had pictured it?"

"I do hope you hadn't pictured it this way when you were a child"

Ara decided to not reply to that last comment. Instead she took a few steps forward, slowly. As she did so, the mizutsune raised its head, its blue eyes briefly falling on Oberon before moving to the girl. It raised on its legs, the fins along its serpentine body moved by the breeze, light partially reflecting off its scales. The sight was almost breathtaking, if not for the reason why such a meeting was happening in the first place. That kinda ruined the moment. Ara wasn't too sure as she had never seen one so up close, but by its size she suspected it was a somewhat young one. Its body was almost as wide as hers, and a few times her height in length. Though maybe she only remembered them to grow larger because she herself was much younger when she saw one from afar. Two more steps, and she stopped. She tried to fix her gaze on its chest rather than its head. Mizutsunes were kept in high regard in her homeland -almost revered maybe, albeith not by everyone- and because of that she felt especially intimidated.

After a short while, it moved forward, placing its head in front of Ara. She tried to calm herself down as it began to smell her. Its long neck allowed it to sniff her back while staying with most of its body in front of her. She slowly turned around to face its head, and the mizutsune almost pushed its nose against her neck. Then it licked her. For some reason she had expected its tongue to feel like that of a cat, but it was actually really smooth. Its drool also felt more like water, though that didn't surprise her. Then it started walking in circle around her, all the while studying her scent, its gaze never leaving her. It seemed like something was bothering it, which worried Ara. She briefly looked around and saw Oberon resting against a tree, far enough to not bother them but also close enough to do something in case things went wrong.

Then it took her with one limb -its claws scratching her skin despite the light pressure-, raised itself up a bit and... pulled her against its chest, right against its fur. Ara remained mostly still, if only because she wasn't sure how to react. That said, the fur was wet. She pushed herself away a bit, more to get its hair away from her face than for other reasons. Then she noticed that the mizutsune's body had started to emit bubbles, albeith they were relatively small.

"... wait"

It pushed her back against its chest and started rubbing her against it, the soft fur brushing against her skin. Her clothes were getting wet from that, but the bubbles on her skin felt... well, like a few different things. Some actually stung or felt too hot, while others were pleasantly cool to the touch, and some others seemed to be so smooth they slid along the skin either all the way to the ground or upwards into the air in just a few moments. She closed her eyes and mouth to prevent the soap that was forming to end up inside them, breathing with her nose in the meanwhile. Then the mizutsune opened its mouth and poured a rather large amount of water over Ara, leaving her dripping, her clothes completely soaked. On the bright side, the water was relatively warm. She moved her sopping hair away from her eyes and saw it staring at her for a brief moment before it began to smell her again. Then it moved its snout away and started walking around her after having put her down.

"... oh, come on..." she said as she saw its tail closing in on her.

The mizutsune started rubbing it against Ara, probably because the fur there was the longest on its whole body. She found herself enveloped in a mixture of fur, soap, bubbles and water, which made it quite hard to breathe normally. She tried to keep her balance, but a particularly strong move of the tail pushed her down. She might have held on to the purple hair, but for one reason or another she really didn't felt like doing that. As the -also- scaled creature kept walking in circles around her, its tail running relatively gently against her body, she tried to crawl out of the fur, eventually getting a large mouthful of air. As she did so, the mizutsune poured another large load of water from its mouth directly on her.

She coughed a bit as the creature smelled her for the third time. Then it took her with one of its front legs and started brushing the fur on its other limb on her. She instinctively put her arms over her face to cover it, and apparently that didn't bother the... washer? Once it was done, it sampled her scent yet again, and for the second time it licked her, albeith more than just once.

 _This is nothing like I had pictured it..._ she thought, several mixed feelings swirling within her.

Then its tongue slid underneath her coat, proving to be much longer than she had expected, and started running inside her sleeves, over her skin. She somehow managed to take the coat off before it ended up torn, but her partner didn't seem to mind. Instead it moved its head closer, enough for her to feel its breath on her skin, as it let go of her to start walking around her again, all the while running its tongue over her, and occasionally rubbing the fur of its legs against her. Then its tongue slid under her dress, almost tearing it apart simply due to its size -that, and it was a rather thight dress in the first place- almost giving her goosebumps. It didn't feel slimy, far from it, but it was still a rather odd experience. Then it slid underneath her pantyhose, at which point she almost instinctively tried to grab it. Maybe because it was so smooth she couldn't really get a firm grip on it, the mizutsune didn't react to that at all. What it did react to was Ara's voice when it eventually pushed its tongue under her panties and inside her.

It slid in surprisingly easily. Maybe because of how sleek it was, or maybe because all the foam that he was producing and that was ending up a bit everywhere on Ara acted as a sort of lubrificant. Either way, it reached a bit too deep with a single motion, making her momentanely lose strength in her legs. She held on to its head, and aside from a low grumble the mizutsune seemed to be fine with it. As it started to move its tongue around inside her, it moved its gaze to Ara's hair -albeith it was rather hard in that position-, since it had turned white. Ara's breaths grew ragged as the tongue kept twisting around, the foam continually increasing, bubbles rising from her partner's body. Soon after she fell on the floor, her hands sliding against its scales, its secretions making it extremely hard to keep holding on to its body.

She ended up sitting on the slippery ground, somehow managing to keep herself from ending up lying with her hands, albeith getting a proper hold on something was really hard at the moment. The mizutsune then pulled its whole tongue back, making her shriek a bit, before brushing the fur on its tail against her a couple of times. As is she wasn't soaked enough already, mainly in soap and bubbles but water too. She tried to adjust her position a bit, but quickly decided that doing that would have most likely ended up with her slipping over something and instead tried to stand still. Meanwhile, her partner had been staring at her. A few moments later, it opened its mouth and placed it over Ara's shoulder.

"Just... don't do anything weird... ok?" she said, though she was sure it didn't understand her at all.

Her face grew a bit pale when the mizutsune's jaw started moving in what seemed to be a chewing motion, but it didn't actually put any strength into it, and while that was a good thing, she had no idea what that was for. Then its tongue came out again, sliding underneath her dress and reaching for her entrance. She held her voice in as it penetrated her again, reaching so deep it actually caused her some pain as well. As it started twisting around inside her, the mizutsune poked her face with its claws, and she ended up grabbing it, and while they weren't slippery and made for a good support, she almost cut herself by doing that.

She didn't know how long that went on, but it was... well, pleasant. Not only the sexual stimulation -which was actually wildly inconstant, the feeling going from mild to very strong to painful depending on where and with how much strength it rubbed against her insider- but the foam as well felt very nice on the skin. Ara was rather comfortable with the situation, though she had mixed feelings about her own calm. Eventually she realized she had grown a tail, which was waving against the foam-covered ground. Her partner touched her fur, curious about it, as Ara felt her orgasm getting closer. Truth be told, that was closer to a long session of edging than anything else, but at that point she was getting a bit used to those as well, for better or for worse.

Her legs started to tremble as the pleasure built up, the feeling spreading through her whole body as she almost instinctively bit down on her lips, though those were rather slippery too. The mizutsune felt her thightening around its tongue and decided to pull it back out, giving her the last push she needed, her body shaking sligthly as she savored her first orgasm. She let herself slide down on the ground, ending up lying on the layer of foam, water and bubbles that had formed, her tail waving in the air. She let go of her lips, her breaths a bit ragged, her cheeks of a bright red.

After a brief pause, Ara tried to get on her feet, though that took almost five minutes as apparently even the sole of her wedges had gotten slippery. Once she managed to get up, she started walking towards a tree, if only to have something to hold on to, and the mizutsune actually helped her to get there.

"T-thanks..." she said as it carefully pushed her forward.

Soon after they reached the tree, near the edge of the glade. There were a few branches close enough to the ground for Ara to hold on to, and after she grabbed them she rested for a moment in the shade of the plant. While the tree was dry, her hands were covered in a good amount of foam, which made her grip far less firm than usual, though not to the point she couldn't hold herself up. Then she placed an hand over her skirt.

 _I... guess I have to..._ she thought as she pulled it up.

On the bright side, her clothes weren't getting torn for once. Though it was actually Oberon who fixed them up anyway. She had a few moments of hesitation, then she pushed her pantyhose down. Not too far, just as much as needed. The mizutsune smelled her lower area, making her blush even more, then brushed its tail against her for the umpteenth time. After that it got in position, slightly climbing the tree to properly position itself, as Ara pushed her panties down. It partially rested one of its front legs on her shoulder for a brief moment, before actually moving her around a bit. Considering its position, its body was long enough for it to turn its head around and look straight at Ara's face, though she had trouble holding its gaze. She felt its member poking against her butt, and for a few, long moments she feared it was going to use the... wrong entrance, but much to her relief it then moved itself in front of the... well, the usual one. And then it penetrated her, with a single motion.

She had prepared herself for that, but the sheer strength of the stimulus caught her completely off guard. Something between a scream and a loud moan escaped her lips, the feeling so intense her legs gave out, her arms supporting most of her weight. She didn't know how its member was shaped as she had purposefully not looked at it, out of embarrassment, but now she sort of regretted it. She had no idea what kind of... form could give such a strong stimulation. The feeling was somewhat similar to that of a cat's tongue, but far, far more intense. Not only that, it felt incredibly sharp even though it slid inside her extremely smoothly. She could sort of tell the texture wasn't regular, and it was also oddly warm. Almost too hot. As if all of that wasn't enough already, it was also pulsating, albeith rather weakly. The mizutsune gently pushed its snout against Ara, who had been left almost out of breath, as if to make sure she was alright.

"J-just a... give me a moment..." she said, a small part of her hoping it could actually understand her, the majority of her knowing she spoke only to calm herself a bit.

After a couple of quick, deep breaths, she realized that her partner wasn't moving, its gaze still locked on her.

 _It's... considerate of him..._ she thought, reassured.

She took a few more breaths then told herself that it was probably better to start moving. And so she did. A combination of moving forward and pushing -mainly pulling- herself up. The stimulation was so intense she had to move really slowly in order to keep herself together though. She realized she had grown a second tail only when the mizutsune rubbed the fur of one of its legs against it. Once she felt only its tip still being inserted, she started moving back down along its length, until she eventually got back to the starting position. The whole process probably took almost five whole minutes. She wasn't sure she could take a whole... intercourse like that, but at that point she was pretty sure she couldn't even back out of it. Her fox ears twitched as she started to move up again, bit by bit. She wasn't sure how long it took her to move up and down along the mizutsune's member a total of five times, but she was sure it was taking her way too long. Her breathing had gotten ragged, and she even grew a third tail, which was waving almost anxiously together with the first two.

The mizutsune had been standing quite still the whole time, occasionally brushing its fur against her, but by looking at its face she could tell it was getting rather... annoyed. She started lowering herself again, the excessively strong feeling almost overstimulating her. But then her partner moved, maybe to get a better footing, maybe simply because it wanted to change position a little. Took by surprise, Ara lost her grip on the branches. Combined with her wedges being as soapy as they could possibly get, she ended up falling back, the mizutsune's whole length penetrating her. The sudden motion alone would have been enough to send her over the edge, but there was something else she found out. Which is to say, her partner actually hadn't pushed its whole length inside of her. A jolt of pain ran through her body as she felt its tip poking a bit too violently against her cervix, her body tensing up as her mind processed the waves of pleasure her orgasm sent through her, all the way to the tip of her fur, which would have been completely pricked up if not for how wet it was.

She regained control over her voice after a not too short while, and reached for the tree again as she tried to recover from the stimulation, but the branches were now out of her reach. Then the mizutsune grabbed Ara with one on its legs and gently pulled her up -she bit her lips to keep herself from moaning, or screaming- before moving back to the waterfall, or rather to the pond of water around it. She rested Ara on a rather large rock on the edge of the water, with her back up, before getting in position, a good part of its body overshadowing her.

"W-wait... just a -!"

Her sentence turned into an undefined sound as her partner penetrated her. She nearly fainted for a brief moment, her tails standing as straight up as they could, all her fur pricked up. The mizutsune rested one of its feet on the same rock Ara was lying on, and partially on her shoulder as well. Maybe to hold her in place.

"Wait wait wa-!"

Her voice broke as the creature began thrusting, relatively slowly but still several times faster than Ara did previously. She instinctively clawed at the rock as she felt hotter and hotter, sweat starting to mix in with the foam, her insides contracting against the mizutsune's member at every thrust, increasing even more the already excessive stimulation she was receiving. Her partner ran its tongue on her gently, from her fox ears all the way to the tip of her newly grown tail, the sensation of a fourth one coming out contributing to Ara's already confused state. She tried to move away, but the mizutsune's feet over her shoulder didn't budge, leaving her with no other options but to try to endure the pleasure, as well as the little pain she felt every time it poked at her cervix. Her third orgasm violently ran through her every nerve, her muscles shaking as she reflexively tried to arch her back, to no avail. For a few seconds she stopped breathing, the sensation being so intense it cut her breath.

The thrusting then stopped as the mizutsune gently pushed its snout against her, to see if she was alright. She took a few long, deep breaths, and apparently to it that was enough as it started moving back and forth again. She resisted the urge of shouting at it to stop at least for few minutes, as that would have been a waste of oxigen. At one point it raised its feet a bit, and that's when Ara realized that due to all the foam that was dripping from its fur, the rock had become highly slippery as well. The moment it saw Ara starting to slide down along it her partner placed its foot back on her.

At that point thinking straight was something she could no longer do, all her orgasms having left her even more sensitive, at the mercy of an overbearing stimulation. She wasn't sure how long it kept moving its member back and forth inside her, and when her fourth orgasm hit her a part of her simply stopped caring. Then, the mizutsune halted, slowly pulling itself out. Ara somehow managed to turn around on her back without slipping off the rock. When she looked down she realized her tails were five. Apparently the intercourse felt so intense she didn't even notice she had grown one more, even though that should have been a rather strong feeling itself.

As she took one of the longest, deepest breaths of her life, her gaze lost in the serpentine body standing above her, the mizutsune licked her face a couple of times. Had she been ever so slighty less... dazed out, she probably would have wondered why not a single bit of foam had ended up in her eyes. Sheer luck maybe. Then she felt the creature's member against her entrance again. Her eyes widened, but she was too exhausted to either move or say anything. Or to control her voice, which ran freely out of her mouth as the mizutsune entered her again, hitting her in an all different way due to her different position. She had been so overstimulated by then that she didn't even notice when its member started pulsating with more intensity. She did notice, however, when it pushed itself deeper inside her, enough to actually enter her womb. A jolt of pleasure -with a faint pain latched to it- shook her body as her cervix was penetrated, her tails waving so wildly it almost looked like they were having spasms, and -maybe to unconsciously get herself off one last time, maybe for other reasons- she sunk her fingernails into her arms with enough strength to leave a bleeding trail behind her fingers, as the warm seed began to fill her insides. The feeling almost made her nauseous, but the sheer pleasure that had been piling up simply overshadowed it. It didn't take long for her to fell it overflowing from her womb, and shortly after the amount in excess began to drip out of her entrance. At last, the mizutsune pulled out.

As if to mark the end of the... session, Ara felt a sharp heat in the lower part of her back, right as her sixth tail joined the previous five. Her partner stared at her chest moving up and down for a short while as she filled her lungs with much needed air, then gently grabbed her and... pushed her under the water. For little more than a second, but still. When it pulled her back up she coughed out some water, right before the soap-soaked fur of its tail brushed all over her again. It then placed her down before curling up on the ground and staying there. Ara's gaze lazily moved here and there, until it fell on Oberon. He was finishing to fill up the bottles with the soap the mizutsune had produced. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, which flew by as if they were mere seconds, until Oberon woke her up. He had her coat on his left shoulder.

"We should get going"

"I... can't walk..." she replied. By the look of it, she was so tired she coudn't even lift her soaked tails.

In response, he put on the backpack and took her in his arms, just like a few other times. Maybe because she was so exhausted, Ara didn't complain, nor did she seem to mind. As he carried her out of the dome and to the elevator, she realized that the sun was setting. He noticed there were whisker markings on her cheeks. Probably because of how many tails she currently had, as he didn't remember having ever seen them before. He avoided telling her about it, for the time being at least, and brought her all the way to the bathroom. There he dropped the backpack and placed Ara in the bathtub before turning on the faucet.

"We need to wash off the soap, or your skin will be too slippery"

She replied with a weak nod. Rather than actually washing her, however, Oberon simply let her sink in the warm water. It took longer that way, much longer, but for some reason he avoided touching her too much, simply holding her so that she wouldn't end up with her head underwater instead, aside from when he had to wash her face. He didn't even take off her clothes, though that probably was because those had to be washed in the same way too. Then he helped her out of the tub.

"You should change your clothes or you'll catch a cold"

"I... think I can do that myself" she said.

"... I'm afraid not" he replied after having taken a look at her unsteady legs.

Ara sighed, but for a combination of reason she didn't complain as he undressed her. Her face couldn't get any redder anyway. Then he put the chastity belt -... when did he even take it from her room?- back on her, something which felt almost familiar, for better or for worse. Most likely for worse. Right after that he gave her a bathrobe. Then he took nearly all the bottles out of the backpack and walked out, carrying her soaked clothes and a single bottle with him. Not long after that, Rena walked into the kitchen, where Oberon was making dinner. She had gone to the bathroom a few minutes before, and Ara told her that she was going straight to sleep. The elf was rather worried, as she clearly had underestimated how... taxing that session would have been. But she considered it pointless to talk about it with Oberon at that point, and so dinner went by in silence. Aside for Rena's remark about Ara's whisker marks.

As for Ara, she had asked Rena to dry her hair and tails, while she did the rest by herself to avoid her seeing the chastity belt. Then she slowly walked to her room, closed the door, put on a bra, then called out Oberon's replacement body, which she had decided to name Obe. The -a bit too- young-looking near-puppet came out of under the bed, and she told it to get it ready -a few testings and the instructions told her that that was one of the most complex things it could do without going haywire-. Then she went under the sheets -though it actually wasn't that comfortable for someone with six fox tails-, holding Obe as a sort of body pillow. Sleep came to her almost instantly.


	17. All Still There

**All Still There  
**

Ara woke up rather early, at least for her standards. Rather than getting up, however, she decided to stay on the bed a bit longer, cuddling Obe. The sheets had been pushed away during the night, her tails having replaced them as her cover. They were all still there, which was a bit unusual. Eventually she decided to get up, and once she went to the bathroom to wash her face she noticed the marks on her cheeks. She ran her hands over them, her ears twitching a couple of times as she did so. They felt a bit like grooves. It had been a long time since she had last seen those on her face. Though she did wonder why neither Rena nor Oberon told her about them. That said, she noticed that her skin was... really smooth. As in, a lot more than usual. That soap did wonders apparently. She brought her mind to other matters, but... maybe not as quickly as usual.

She went back to her room and opened her wardrobe, looking at its content. She took out a one-piece dress, around as long as the dress and skirt she usually wore put together, white on the front while black on the sides and with a few red motifs over it, which left the back mostly exposed, and with a small, brooch-like decoration which went over her exposed skin, in the space left between the dress and her neck. Usually she would attach it to a black chocker to help held the dress up, but she had to use the metal one she couldn't take off instead. The dress, which was of a very dark orange -or red, it was a bit hard to tell- on the inside, had two tails on the back, the one on the right being twice the size of the left one. Then she wore two black, tight shoulder length gloves, of which the left one had a rather large sleeve -black on the outer side and red on the inner side- attached at the very base of the glove, covering the arm almost up to the wrist. She started getting changed, leaving her usual clothes on the chair, then she took out a single, black thigh high which she wore on the left leg. After that she took a small fur boa and put it on her shoulder, latching it to the base of the gloves with small, hidden hooks. There was a third one supposed to go behind her neck, but since the chocker she had on wasn't meant for dressing -not that way at least- she couldn't attach it there. She took out a pair of small shoes which covered little more than her toes and the side of her feet, with a heel a bit shorter than her usual wedges. After that she changed her hairpins with different, golden ones that matched the motifs which decorated those clothes here and there. Lastly she combed her hair, splitting it into two long locks. The whole process didn't actually take long.

She walked out, then went back in to tell Obe to hide. Though the idea of having him -it? She wasn't sure yet- under the bed for the whole day wasn't that great, so she had him hide in the wardrobe. Whether that was any better might be debatable though. Then she went to the kitchen. Rena briefly thought about what to comment on, decided that the tails probably weren't the best thing to talk about and went for the other option.

"It's quite unusual for you to completely change your clothing like that"

"I felt like it" Ara replied as she briefly looked around "Where's Oberon?" she asked. Breakfast was on the table, but he clearly wasn't in the room.

"He said he would have been busy the whole day with something, without going into details"

"Is that so"

She took a seat -after having turned the chair around, as the backrest hadn't been designed for someone with six tails- and started eating. Then she walked out of the menagerie and looked around. The place was empty as usual, though being just a few days since the fair had ended, it seemed to be even quieter. The sun was shining unobstructed, hardly any clouds in the sky. With nothing else to do, she went for a walk, without getting too close to the regular city as she didn't want to be seen in those conditions. Though it was rather unusual for her to go out even with just her hair turned white, let alone with fox ears and that many tails. That said, nothing special happened the whole morning. Lunch went by rather normally as well, aside from the fact that, with Oberon still gone, Rena had to do the cooking, and even the meat somehow tasted like vegetables due to that.

Ara wondered about something, then decided to step into the elevator. A while after Rena had gone to work though. She went back to the mizutsune's dome, her fist step inside suddenly making her more conscious of the seed still in her womb. Driving her mind away from that, she looked for a good spot to lie down, eventually finding in on top of a tree. She saw the room's inhabitant as she walked around, but it was sleeping. For the better, probably. She was pretty sure she had already had enough interaction with it for quite a while. She spent most of the afternoon there, lost in her thoughts, the familiarity of the landscape helping her relax until the sun began to set. At that point she thought that it was probably better to go back. She found Rena in the kitchen again, in the midst of making dinner. She started bracing her taste buds for more fruit-like meat.

"Oh, hi. Were have you been the whole day?"

"Out for a walk. Is Oberon still busy?"

"Apparently"

The day ended with nothing special happening. Aside from some chicken somehow stealing an apple's taste.

* * *

Ara woke up a bit later the next morning. And while it did take a while -enough for her drowsiness to mostly fade- she noticed that all six tails were still there. She was getting a bit worried about it, and probably Rena too judging by the remark she did when Ara walked into the kitchen for breakfast.

"Maybe it takes longer because there are so many of them?"

"It's a possibility. Actually, at this point I'd say that seems to be the case"

On his part, Oberon -who thankfully had come back to cook their meals- didn't say anything about it. A while later Rena went to get some paperwork done, or at least that's what she said, leaving the other two alone in the room.

"Do you want to try cooking something?" he asked.

"... yes, I'd like to"

"It's unusual to see you wearing such clothes"

"Why, is something wrong with them?"

"Not at all. I simply thought you weren't the type to wear something so... seductive" he replied, keeping to himself the thought that he had mixed -and confused- feelings about the pantyhose being gone.

"I-it's just..." Ara said back as her ears twitched frantically for a very brief moment, her cheeks vaguely turning red for a few seconds "I just felt like wearing them"

Oberon, whose gaze was fixed on her tails, remained silent for a somewhat long while. Ara cooked rather well that morning. That's, compared to her usual performances. The food tasted almost as bad as ever, but it also turned out actually edible. The rest of the day went by uneventfully.

* * *

Ara was going to work the next afternoon, which was coming somewhat slowly. She still had all her tails, and the fact was starting to worry her a bit too much. She wondered if she could somehow contact Eun and ask her about it, but the truth was that she had no idea where to find her. After breakfast, when Rena had left the kitchen, she asked Oberon about what she would have had to deal with in a few hours. And, after a brief silence, he answered. While he didn't go into details regarding the mating habits -because he had never observed the act, so he said- he did provide a rather good physical description. Knowing things -some of them at least- beforehand made her calmer, and the fact that he actually listened to her complain from a couple of days earlier made her somewhat... happy? Satisfied might be a better word. Not that she had forgotten all the times he had made her upset too. Time went by slowly after that, until the three of them eventually walked into the elevator together. Albeith Ara and Oberon got off at the second level, unlike Rena who went deeper. From there they walked to the second room. The antechamber was almost completely empty, with nothing but a table, a chair and a small wardrobe. He gave her the key, waited for her to take the chastity belt off, then put the key back in a pocket before entering the dome.

The inside of that one was a forest, and a rather thick one. The roots of the trees were large and made for a rather uncomfortable ground to move on, and judging by how numerous the branches were, as well as how large and intertwined they were, walking on them would have been easier, if not for the fact that the lowest ones were four or five meters above their heads. There were also quite a lot of flowers, though due to the fact that sunlight was mostly blocked off, seing the less colorful ones was a bit tricky. The air was rather humid as well. They started walking, Ara somehow managing to not break her ankles despite wearing heels on such terrain. Though she realized that wearing nothing around her privates felt rather... breezy with that attire. She moved her mind from that to the first thing that fell into her line of sight, which happened to be a flower. They kept moving for a short while, until Oberon stopped and looked up, at around the same time they heard something above them. She moved her gaze upwards as well and saw them.

Around half of Ara's size, albeith they were rather bulky. Their body resembled that of a gorilla, though the arms's proportions were closer to those of an human, and their head was similar to that of a rat, with two small, antelope-like horns. They were covered in blue fur, except for their neck and belly which was red. They had rather long tails which strongly resembled those of a cheetah. There were three of them, and after a brief minute or so of staring at the two of them -or rather, at Ara- one of the creatures climbed down a tree and carefully approached her. Looking at them up close, they were a bit bigger than she had expected, reacing slightly below her breasts with their heads. Unless you accounted for their horns as well.

According to Oberon, those three were more like worker ants, which meant she wouldn't have to interact that much with them. After a short while, the other two climbed down as well, though they kept their distance, as the first one smelled her before placing an hand over her legs. Calmly, Ara ran her hands over its fur, and the creature stepped back a little before moving to her side to take a closer look at her tails. If one were to judge based on how they were moving, Ara seemed to be much calmer than usual. Well, at least until the three creatures suddenly grabbed her and climbed back up the trees, ignoring her protests. They did let go of her when she punched one in the face though, not too hard but still. The workers backed off a bit as she looked down. They were actually quite up in the air, probably around eight meters, but the branches seemed sturdy enough to hold their weight. After a short moment of what seemed to be confusion, the three workers apparently decided that leading the way was safer than actually carrying her, and started moving along. Ara looked around to make sure Oberon was there and, after having seen him not too far away -when did he climb up?- she started walking.

In a matter of a few minutes they reached what seemed to be the den: a rather thick cluster of branches twisted into a somewhat spherical shape, around the same size of the menagerie's kitchen, with three entrances. There were a lot of leaves there, and they were high up enough for sunlight to not get too blocked by other branches above them. The three workers walked inside, and Ara did the same, her tails waving behind her. Inside was a larger exemplar, which would have been taller than Ara if not for his posture, the same of a gorilla. His tail and horns were proportionally larger compared to the workers, and some of its fur was died in a bright green watercolor. The main difference, however, was probably the fact that it had a mane. A large, bright red mane which almost looked like fire. The three smaller ones walked up to it and they seemed to have a very brief talk of some sort, then they moved to the edge of the den as the larger one approached Ara. She wasn't sure why, but for some reason she felt... less in the mood than usual? She couldn't help but feel like that one wasn't exactly to her likings. She realized how weird that line of thought was and cut it off.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, then the creature placed one of its large hands over her shoulder and moved it along her arm, curious. Its fur felt soft but not as smooth as she had expected. When the creature leaned in closer and began smelling her neck she started to get a bit nervous, but the fact that she had already dealt with much, much worse than that was making it relatively easy to take. ... really easy? Probably. When the simil-gorilla pushed its snouth against her shoulder and moved it down, she unfastened the brooch from her choker to avoid having the dress torn off. As a matter of fact, a few moments later her partner pushed it down, albeith it didn't seem too intentional. Ara's ears twitched a couple of times as her breasts were exposed. She blushed as it focused its gaze over her nipples, fondling her chest with one hand while resting its weight on the other. Though, after the initial embarrassment, what crossed her mind was annoyance at how clumsy it was, even for an animal. Realizing what she had just thought actually made her more embarassed, her cheecks turning redder.

Unsure about what to do, she started caressing its head, and actually pinched it -by accident?- when the creature bit one of her breasts with a bit too much strength. Apparently the message got through as it became a bit more gentle, but for some reason she actually wasn't really feeling much in term of stimulation. Then the creature pushed its head against her chest and made her trip over a branch. She broke her fall at the last moment by holding on to another brach, and in that position she saw the creature's member. Which, by the look of it, was fully erect. The size and shape, compared to all the previous ones, caused Ara to... well, giggle. For less than a moment, but it was still enough. The creature froze for a second. Then it turned around and ran away.

"Wh- hey!" Ara shouted as she covered her chest with one arm "... hey, are you serious?!"

Her -supposed to be- partner quickly left the den, and the three workers, after a relatively long bewilderment, decided to follow it. Ara remained there, really embarassed but mainly speechless.

"... I guess that's it for today" Oberon said as he walked up to her.

"I... what... that... ?"

"Normally I'd say that I should have prevented something like this, but I have to say I hadn't expected such a development"

"I'm... not in any trouble for this, right?" she asked, the thought of what just went on making her blush.

"You have the afternoon off, nothing more. ... and this won't help you with your debt"

"That's a... relief. Someway"

She put her dress back in place, then the two of them started walking back to the entrance. On their way, however, Oberon said something.

"Are you feeling well today?"

"I'm not feeling worse than usual. Why?"

"You acted a bit different"

"Really? How?"

"How could I say... I don't think I'd have ever pictured you scarring one of our guests in such a way?"

"Why, you wanted to enjoy the show?"

He stopped and turned around. She wasn't blushing, nor did she stutter in any way -something which she usually did when she was really embarassed, or at least so he thought-, she wasn't even looking away. Actually, their eyes met and refused to part. It somehow reminded him of that morning, morning which had never left a small corner of his mind. While in a different way, that time too she acted different that usual, albeith her condition was a bit different. They remained there, gazing at each other, seconds going by in silence, until a whole minute had passed, maybe more. Then, as if suddenly realizing what she had said, Ara turned her head the other way, her cheeks now clearly red, her tails swinging in front of her as if to cover her, almost violently.

"F-forget that"

_... should I worry about this?_

As for whose thought that was, I'm not sure. An handful of moments later, Oberon began walking again and Ara decided to turn the subject to something completely different.

"So... how much of my debt is left?" she asked

"One million seven hundred and seventy five thousand"

Ara stopped dead in her tracks.

"Y... you mean... wait, even if I don't count the million and a half from that day then... when did I earn that much money?!" she almost shouted.

"This is an approximation, but with every session you take roughly one hundred seventy five thousands off your debt, though there is a great variance from one job to the other"

"Wait wait wait, how much money does Eve make off this place!?"

"... a lot" he replied as he started walking again "Mistress's researches are rather expensive"

"H-hey!"

She hurried after him.

"To be more accurate, sometimes you earn less than twenty thousands, others more than three hundred thousands with a single session. It depends on the partner. You've kept a rather high average value so far"

Which meant he made sure she kept said high value... right?

"And how much would this... session have earned me?"

"Around... twenty five thousands I think"

_Well, at least I didn't lose out too much..._

Ara went back to her room -after having put the belt back on- to do... things -probably play around with Obe?-, while Oberon went to the kitchen. As for Rena, she most likely was busy with her work at the moment. Then, something unexpected happened. The bell rang. Or rather, someone ran the bell, but rather than making a sound, it sent an alert straight to Oberon's system, which is why none of the other residents heard anything.

* * *

Ara quickly pushed Obe under the bed before walking to the door when someone knocked at her room.

"Do you have your mask?" Oberon asked.

"... eh?"

"The one you used for your public performance"

"Y... yes, it's here... why?" she replied, her face turning bright red at the mere memory of the event.

"Put it on and come downstairs. There is someone who wants to talk with you"

"Someone? Who?"

"One of the organizers of the fair"

"... can I refuse?"

"Of course. But I think you should at least hear him out"

"... right. Just give me a couple of minutes"

She found the mask in a drawer, put it on then said a couple of words to confirm that it still altered her voice a bit. She made sure it worked, gave her hair a quick comb then walked downstairs. Oberon was waiting in the kitchen, together with a man in really formal clothes, although they also were extravagant enough to make her think about the fair right away. And then there was his mask, which was actually completely devoid of facial features of any sort, despite being finely decorated. He was sitting at the table, drinking a cup of what seemed to be coffee. ... she had seen that mask once before, at the Tea House. Albeith she had a different one on at the time, so maybe he didn't recognize her.

"Good afternoon" he said as soon as he saw her, standing up and offering an handshake.

"G... good afternoon"

"My colleague doesn't have much experience with the fair" Oberon said as he started pouring her a cup of tea.

"Oh, I see. I thought she would know me already. I'm Sha, one of the founders of the fair" he then began talking as he sat back down, Ara taking the chair opposite to him "While I didn't get the chance to personally attend to your show, I've heard some of my friends talk very positively about it"

Glad that the mask hid her blush, though only partially -why did it have to leave one of her cheeks exposed?-, Ara wondered how she was supposed to reply. Since she remained silent, the man decided to continue.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you could be the model for a photo shooting, or even one or two videos if possible. If it doesn't go against your contract with the owner of this shop, of course. I take it she's your employer"

"What kind of photos are you talking about?" she asked as she tried to hold her tails still.

"The kind we probably wouldn't show to children"

She took a silent, deep breath to keep her composure, then replied.

"I don't intend to have sex with strangers for money" she said, her firm voice surprising Oberon, who on the other hand didn't really seem fazed.

"... I see. I personally find it a bit odd for your work policy to allow animals and not people, but... oh, of course. The fox was probably yours in the first place. I apologize for my rudeness. I am glad to inform you, however, that I had already planned for most photos to be with you as the sole subject. In case of the presence of another person in the image being necessary, there'd be no problem for it to be your coworker here" he said as he gestured towards Oberon "assuming he accepts and is fit for the part, of course"

_This is so awkward..._

"I'll think about it" he said, almost coldly. Or at least she got the impression he wanted to sound so.

"... what sort of photos are we talking about?" she almost repeated.

A brief silence.

"Oh, right. The theme of the shooting would be bondage. A rather common subject, I know, especially compared to your own show, but this is what the market demands. That said, I'll try to add some other... interests in the album. I'll rent one of the nearby buildings, so you won't even have to travel somewhere for the job"

"I-I see. And... how many photos are we talking about?"

"I don't know the exact number yet, but I would say around... twelve? Obviously, that excludes all the trial shoots, and the number might increase. No more than thirty, anyway. And that would be the most extreme case"

"And how much would you pay for this photo shoot?" she asked, also because she wasn't sure she could stand that conversation for much longer and that seemed like a good and polite way to get to the end of it.

"Considering that I would have to pay a couple of staff members and other preparations... I think twenty five thousands each? As for the videos, the price would depend on the length and content. If you are willing to do them, I mean"

"... I'll... think about it..."

"Wonderful" he replied as he got up and shook Ara's hand again "I'll come back tomorrow afternoon"

"S-sure"

And with that he walked out. Ara let herself fall on the table, without bothering to take her mask off.

"Why does it feel like I'm getting sucked into a world my parents wouldn't be proud of?"

"You can refuse if you don't want to do it"

"I know..." she replied as she grinded her head against the table. The pay wasn't actually that high. Sure it was better than what she had recently found out to earn with a single session, but those at least were... private. That time with the fox was public, true, but on the other hand the money she had earned that time were a lot more. And she wasn't even sure she didn't regret doing it in the first place.

"Can you at least pose?"

"I never tried"

Then something started ringing. Ara looked around, a bit confused, while Oberon walked to the box Eve had left in the kitchen before leaving. He pushed an hidden button and the sound stopped, replaced by Eve's voice.

"Oberon?"

"Right here, mistress"

"I got a letter from Sha, is he there already?"

"He left a few minutes ago"

She mumbled something in a low voice.

"What did Ara say?"

"I'm here too" she commented.

"Oh, perfect. So?"

"Can I... like, actually even trust him?"

"Of course. He has a reputation to maintain, he can't afford to not keep his word. Does that mean you accepted?"

"I... don't know yet"

"If you decide to do it you can take off the belt, it would probably cause you a few troubles and possibly cancel the whole thing. Only in that case, and only for the duration of the shooting"

"Can you not talk as if I've already taken the job? Please?"

"I actually was expecting you to turn him down immediatly. Are you feeling well?"

"How come you're all so concerned about me today?"

"I'm just surprised, I didn't think that my show would have become the starting point of your career at the fair"

"I told you I haven't accepted the offer!"

"Yet?"

"And I don't want this kind of career!"

"I think you might be suited though"

"... I need a bath" Ara replied as she left, slamming the door behind her.

"Oberon" Eve said then "Since we're here already, how much has Ara paid off so far?"

"Two millions seven hundred and twenty five thousand"

"More than I had expected... I guess she likes the job more than I had thought. ... even if she accepts, the shooting won't be held before next week, I know Sha's schedule. Some of it. Just in case, prepare the test body, I wouldn't want for her debt to run out before I got the chance to try that. I'll get there soon, but I won't be able to assist for more than the actual exchange, you'll have to document everything else by yourself"

"As you wish, mistress"

Then the call ended. As he walked away, Oberon wondered if it was really a good idea to do what Eve had planned. Then again, she had given him a clear order so it being a good thing or not had little -if any- importance.

* * *

The next day came surprisingly slowly. Ara had spent most of the morning sitting on her bed, either messing Obe's hair or running her hands over her own tails, thinking about the offer. Not the whole morning though. At one point she laid on the bed, on top of Obe, with her back up, the sheets partially covering them. She rested her head on the pillow, next to his, grabbed one of his hands and gently guided it on her back, down along her spine. While she hadn't given him any specific order, Obe could follow manual instructions rather well. She moved his palm below her dress, over her butt, and managed to slid one of his fingers inside her rear. The fact that the chastity belt left it always exposed was something she had gotten used to surprisingly fast, but that didn't make it any less awkward.

Her cheeks began to turn a bit red as she whispered something into Obe's ear, and he began to move his finger -both around and back and forth- inside her rear, slowly and rather... mechanically. She took her time to get used to the sensation, then made him push a second finger in, and not long after a third one too. She instructed him to speed up a bit, her face getting more flushed as her breath began to become a bit less regular. Her ears were lowered against her head, her tails slowly moving around above her. Then, with less hesitation than she would have expected from herself, she pulled Obe's fingers out and inserted in her rear the plug instead, before having him move it back and forth. She had gotten rather... used to anal at that point. Not enough to say she was really comfortable with it, but the other option was... well, locked off at the moment. Her breath got a bit ragged as she grabbed Obe's head with one hand, the other gently fondling her own chest. Then she heard the door hopening and her heart stopped.

"Ara, lunch's ready... are you still sleeping?" Rena asked.

For a few instants, panic overrode Ara's whole mind. Thankfully, she realized almost immediatly that the elf couldn't really see what was happening under the sheets, and from her position Obe's head was covered by Ara's. That said, he was still moving the plug back and forth.

"I-I'll come right away" she replied as she tried to fake a yawn, though the combination of awkwardness and stimulation -albeith not particularly strong- made it sound especially... crafted.

The elf either believed that or -more likely?- decided to not make any question as she walked away, closing the door. Ara took a long, deep breath then made Obe stop. She got up, her ears twitching a bit when she removed the plug. Then her gaze locked in on it...

Lunch went by quietly, and a while later Rena -who had been informed of the little... incident in the dome, but not of Sha's visit, mainly because that would imply telling her about Ara's public show too, and that was one of the last things she wanted the elf to know- went to work in the underground levels. Luckily, when Sha arrived Rena had yet to come back up from the lower floors. She put on her mask and went to meet him.

"I apologize for my rudeness" he said as he stood on the doorway, both Ara and Oberon standing in front of him "But I'm really busy today. If you could..."

"I refuse the offer"

She had thought about it, and... the pay wasn't worth it. Especially because, unlike that public session, photos were something which remained and could get passed around. That exhibition, at least, hadn't been filmed. ... because it hadn't, right?

"Is there a way for me to make you change your mind?"

"I... appreciate it that you thought about me for this job" she lied, trying to sound as formal as she could while hiding her uneasiness "But I won't go back on this decision"

"How regretful" he replied with a single, loud clap of his hands -which seemed really out of place considering she had turned down the job- "What if I raise the pay a bit?"

"The answer is still a no" she said, her tails waving nervously behind her.

"I see. If you ever happen to change your mind, your employer should know how to contact me" he added as he quickly shook her hand.

"S-sure..."

"This isn't how I had hoped this to go, but business works this way" he added as he bowed down "I'll take my leave now"

And with that he left. Ara closed the door, turned around, took a step forward, removed her mask and then walked to her room. Keeping the plug on during all that turned out to be a bad idea, as it made her even more agitated.

In truth, Oberon had almost expected Ara to accept the offer, as she had been acting a bit... off lately. Then he looked at her white, soft tails, wagging behind her as she walked upstairs.

They were still six.


	18. Payback... or maybe not

**Payback... or maybe not  
**

Dinner went by rather normally that day. Rena noticed that Ara seemed to be worried about something, but she guessed it was about the fact that none of the tails had disappeared yet. Oberon had also gone back to reading his book, though neither of the two women seemed to pay it any attention. Ara went to sleep rather early, a sudden peak of drowsiness hitting her not long after the meal. Rena, on her part, stayed up a bit late. Once she had fallen asleep too, Oberon walked inside Ara's room. He had slipped a few sleeping pills in her food to make sure she wouldn't wake up. With confused feelings about his replacement body lying in the bed with her as some sort of pillow -some sort of tightly-held pillow- he took her in his arms and carried her out. Eve was on her way, and since the whole thing wouldn't have taken more than three or four hours, she'd have left before sunrise.

* * *

The sun rose peacefully the next day. Ara pushed what little of the sheets was left on the bed completely off it, her tails and ears standing straight up as she stretched her arms. And tails. Still half asleep, she checked if they were still all there, and as it turned out none had gone away. She then decided to sleep for a while longer and threw herself down, her tails covering her again as she held Obe close. That's when she felt something was off. No, not off. Completely wrong. She checked Obe, and... it was bigger than it was supposed to be.

"W-w-wait... you're not Oberon right? Right?!"

The excessively empty gaze she received back convinced her that the one next to her was indeed still Obe, albeith that didn't stop her heart from beating too fast for its own good due to the shock. She was confused, why did it grow that much in a single night? Actually, that body wasn't even made of flesh, it couldn't grow in the first place. Then she noticed another thing. The metal chocker which had been put on her neck felt larger. Considerably larger.

"This is a joke..."

She jumped off the bed and looked at everything in the room. Either the whole world had grown bigger, or she had shrunked during the night.

"How... what..."

She noticed that her voice, too, had a somewhat different pitch. Rather than growing smaller, it was as is she had turned back to a younger self. Her bra was hanging from her shoulder and the chastity belt had fallen off, though at the moment she had other things to think about. She managed to not scream, taking long, deep breaths instead. Obe had gotten off the bed too and had gone to stand next to her. She was a bit shorter than him now. More deep breaths. Then she decided what to do first: see if she had anything she could wear while being that small. She checked her whole wardrobe twice, then twice more, but the only thing that she could reasonably use was her coat: normal dresses or shirt either weren't large enough to accomodate for her tails or simply weren't fit for her current state. So she put that on, hid Obe under the bed because in that situation she didn't feel safe leaving him in the wardrobe then walked out, an overly generous amount of the coat sweeping the floor with her every step. Her hair had grown shorter too, but if compared to her new height they were actually just as long as before.

"Oh, good mor... ning... Ara?!" Rena said, rather shocked upon seeing her walking in the kitchen.

She stood up and hurried in front of her, kneeling down to get a better look.

"What in the world happened?"

"I have no idea"

Oberon, on his part, simply walked next to her and placed an hand above her head.

"You're short"

Her tails shook.

"I had noticed that already"

"You look cute in that overly large coat"

"Eh?"

She realized that her single piece of clothing was falling a bit off her chest and she immediatly pulled it back in place, though she wasn't sure that's where he was looking in the first place.

"I can get you some clothes of the proper size. If you came down looking like this I presume you have nothing that currently fits you"

"That... would surely be handy, but I'm more concerned with why I became like this and how. ... this is Eve's doing, isn't it?"

"I... think the same, for some reason" the elf commented.

Ignoring that, Oberon took something out of a drawer, then picked up Ara and, paying little attention to her protests, placed her on the table. Then, without any ceremony, he took off her coat, leaving her naked.

"H-hey!" she shouted, her face getting flushed as she instinctively tried to hide herself with both her arms and tails, her ears standing straight up.

He simply started taking her measures with a measuring tape.

"I need these if you want fitting clothes"

"Y-you could have... I mean, we could have had Rena take them..." she replied, her tiny arms having no strength to stop him.

The elf, on her part, was a bit confused, for... more than one reason.

"Were you this developed already at... how old do you look now?" he asked as he measured her chest, which while not really big, still was a bit generous for someone that young-looking. Something that the elf had noticed too, though she had purposefully avoided mentioned it.

"I'd really appreciate it if you never bring this subject up again..." she said back, her ears twitching a few times.

Once he was done with the measures, he put an hand on her head and messed her non-existing haristyle -she didn't bother combing that morning- a bit, though Ara told him to stop. He then took a strand of her hair between two fingers and run them from the base to the tip.

"Long hair looks good on you, but in this size they make you appear cute rather than beautiful" he said, almost casually.

"C-come on, stop that... and give me my coat back, this is really embarassing... on so many levels..." she replied as she lowered her gaze, her ears twitching. She didn't blush though. Or rather, compared to her usual reaction it was almost as if her cheeks hadn't even turned red.

Rena's mind went briefly back to what happened when the one to turn younger -so to say- had been Oberon. Especially to that scene she saw for a fraction of a moment when she opened the door to Ara's room.

"... you know what" she said as she got up "Sorry Ara, but I wanted nothing to do with it back then and I want nothing to do with it now, roles swapped or not. I'll go take a look around the town while you... deal with this"

"Shops are still closed" Oberon commented.

"I'll come up with something" she replied as she walked out.

"... did I... miss something?" Ara asked. In truth she knew what the elf was talking about -or at least her blush suggested that- but decided to pretend she didn't.

"I might have missed the same thing too" he replied.

A brief silence

"What makes you think this has something to do with the mistress?"

"Aren't all the weird things that have been happening to me recently been because of her, one way or another?"

"You're the one who picked up the wrong bag though"

"Just... don't remind me of that"

She got off the table and put the coat back on.

"... having to look this much down when talking is a bit uncomfortable"

"Having to look this much up isn't that good either. You were already taller than me before"

"True. ... breakfast is ready" he then said as he walked out.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To get you some clothes"

"Already? Well... thanks"

Three hours or so went by. Hours which Ara had spent under the sheets, cuddling Obe -albeith her current size made that quite hard-, if only because walking around with nothing but an oversized coat on didn't feel that great. She thought for a moment about taking advantage of the lack of chastity belt, but quickly realized that she just wasn't in the mood for that. Then someone knocked at the door. She pushed her unusual body pillow under the bed, put on her coat and went to open, finding Oberon in the hallway.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"... pretty normal, actually. Almost" she replied, her tails shaking a bit.

After a brief silence, he walked in, leaving what seemed to be her change of clothes on the table.

"Wait, already? I thought shops were closed?"

"One of the machineries we use to work the products of our guests can work also as an automatic sewing machine. It took longer for me to program it than for it to actually make the clothes"

"That... makes sense"

"Now then" he said as he grabbed Ara again and placed her on the table.

"Now... what?" she asked.

"I'll get you changed"

A brief silence.

"... no. Like, no. I don't need help to wear some clothes" she replied as she held her overly large cloath tight.

"Don't be difficult"

They stared at each other's eyes for a few seconds, during which Ara's face grew progressively redder. The idea of having someone, especially a man -an... artificial human?-, dressing her up made her maybe a bit too embarassed.

"Is this... some sort of revenge for how I acted... that time?" she asked, her tails waving nervously.

"What are you talking about?"

He had his usual, uninterested -apparently at least- expression, which made Ara guess that he wasn't joking. So she did the only thing which came to mind: she sprung away and started running, slamming the door behind her, nearly tripping on her coat in the process. Oberon, on his part, simply stood there. Or rather, he stayed in the room. After closing the door, he did a quick search until he found Obe -not that he knew that name- under he bed. He pulled it out, then slid a cable out of his own head and plugged it into the one of his smaller body, made a copy of its memory then put it back in place. After that he walked out. Meanwhile, Ara had gone to a rather obvious hiding place. Which is to say, Rena's room. As it turned out, Oberon either hadn't thought about searching there or actually wasn't looking for Ara at all. Or so she thought until she saw the door knob turning. She tried to hide under the bed, but her tails -even if downsized like the rest of her body- turned out to be too cumbersome for that, so she resorted to the back of the wardrobe. She took a deep breath of relief when she saw Rena walking in, and came out of her -not so great- hiding spot.

"Ara? Do you need something?"

"Just let me stay here until lunch"

"Sure, but why?"

"Oberon wants to dress me up"

"He wants to what?"

"He got me some clothes of this size, which is nice and all, but then he said he was going to dress me up himself and I ran away"

The elf laughed. Not too loudly, but still a laugh. Then her laugh died, replaced by a troubled expression.

"I... I really can't picture such a scene"

"It wasn't fun for me!"

"I still don't understand why you get embarassed for something like this. It's Oberon we're talking about, not... I don't know, Elsword or Chung or... any normal man, I guess... ?"

"You wouldn't say that if... !" she started replying, but stopped upon realizing she was about to tell the elf about that morning.

"... if what?" Rena asked, now clearly curious.

"N-nothing. Really!"

The elf stared at her for a few moments, before coming to the conclusion that Ara was talking about that time when Oberon had to use a smaller body and she walked up on them doing... something. And decided to drop the subject.

"You know what, ok. Don't tell me"

"Well... thanks... ?" she replied, the faintest red on her cheeks as she guessed -maybe- what Rena had thought about.

The next hour or so went by slowly, with nothing happening. Eventually, Ara tried to go back to her room, and as expected Oberon wasn't there, since at that time he was most likely making lunch. She found the smaller clothes on the table and quickly put them on. As it turned out, they were -size apart- an exact copy of the ones she used before shrinking. Though maybe they seemed a bit... inappropriate now. Maybe. Though there was also a pair of panties. Apparently that machine couldn't produce a chastity belt. Much to her relief. As for lunch itself, that went by silently, maybe a bit awkwardly for Ara, at least until they had finished eating. Then Oberon spoke. Or rather, inquired Rena.

"How is your work progressing?"

"Neatly, I'd say. I'm actually almost done"

At which Ara turned to her, though she didn't say anything.

"I have a few things to take care of once I've finished here, so I will probably leave right after my job is done"

"... well, it makes sense" Ara commented then.

"Sorry to leave you here on your own. ... though I guess I haven't really been of much company in the first place"

"No no, don't worry about that"

"Since we're on the subject" Oberon interrupted them as he turned to the downsized Ara "Do you think you can work today?"

A brief silence. Which actually turned out to be not so brief.

"... with this... size?" Ara finally replied.

"There is at least one guest you can work with despite your current stature"

"I mean, that's nice and all, but..."

"... but... ?"

Rena, on her part, decided to feign deafness. For one reason or another.

"I honestly am more concerned with turning back to normal at the moment, rather than working"

"We should be able to fix that in a few days"

"How come you sound so sure?"

"I'm simply repeating what the mistress told me" he said, which was somewhere between a lie and the truth.

"Is she admitting to be behind this?" Ara asked, though the only answer she got was an head tilt and another question.

"So, do you feel like working this afternoon?"

"... can I at least see said guest before deciding?" she replied, her tails waving with a bit of nervousness behind her. Or rather at her sides due to the backrest of the chair being there.

"That's reasonable"

The next hour and a half went by somewhat slowly. Rena went to work first, and Oberon told Ara to wait for him at the elevator since he had something to take care of. And she actually walked in circle for more than she had expected, maybe fifteen minutes. Then he came back, but just as Ara was about to step into the elevator, he asked her something.

"Do you want a plug?"

She stopped dead in her tracks, then looked at her small body.

"... that might be better. ... wait, do we even have one of the right... size?" she inquired, her cheeks a bit red.

"Naturally" he replied as he handed her a butt plug.

_Naturally he says..._

She took it, gestured Oberon to turn the other way -which he decided to do- and slowly pushed it inside. It definitively was smaller than the others she had used, but when considering her current size, saying it was actually the biggest one might not have been wrong. Her ears twitched a couple of times as she finished putting it in place, then she fastened the straps, took a couple of quick breaths then told Oberon she was done. Finally, they walked inside the elevator, stepping down at the seventh floor. There they went to the second door. The antechamber was full of empty jars. Since she had nothing to take off for once, they moved on rather quickly, right after Oberon grabbed what seemed to be a cream tube. The dome was... nearly identical to the very first one Ara had seen, with the main difference being that there was a sort of small, stone-made tower in ruin right in the middle of the glade. Which made her think that she actually knew what was there. As for the building itself, it wasn't particularly tall, probably ten or twelve meters at most.

"... it's a slime, isn't it?"

"It is"

At that point she wasn't sure she even needed to actually see it.

"I... think I can do it" she said. The first one was really small, this one couldn't be much worse.

"Take this then" Oberon said as he handed her the tube "Spread it over your face, it should prevent it from completely covering it, otherwise you might suffocate. It needs a few minutes to take effect, but it won't wear off before midnight"

"That's reassuring... ?"

The cream had a weak, pungent smell, and it felt faintly ticklish, but nothing more. They waited a short while -during which he smeared the repellent on one of his hands too-, then Oberon started walking towards the ruined tower, Ara following right behind him. He stopped at the entrance, and she took a couple of steps in, albeith a bit hesitantly. She looked around. There were enough holes in the structure for the sun to illuminate the interior without many problems. It honestly didn't seem too safe, but had it been really dangerous they probably would have fixed it. It was a bit chilly inside there.

"Let's try going up" Oberon said after a while of nothing happening.

He led her to the first floor, the wooden stairs creaking uncomfortably under their feet, and then to the second one. The stairs to the third one, however, were collapsed. Ara started walking in circles -avoiding the places where the floor seemed likely to crack were she to step on it-, nervousness and maybe some second thoughts too getting to her while Oberon simply sat near the corner of the room. Even though there was a window, that floor was a bit darker than the ground one due to less holes in the walls. A short while later, she saw something oozing out from the ceiling, not too far from her head. She instinctively moved out of the way as the red goo kept pouring down on the floor. In less than a minute, all of it had gotten on the ground.

"This is... bigger than I had expected..." she commented as she looked at the slime. Contrary to the first one, it was red. And also bigger than an adult. Almost five times Ara's current size. Or less than that if you considered all her tails.

The gelatinous creature stretched itself horizontally, forming a semicircle around her. She stepped back, her tails waving, agitated. Maybe deciding to work while in that condition hadn't been such a good idea after all. The slime then turned into a full dome around her, and while its body didn't really block off light, it did dye everything red. Then it began to close in on her. Ara felt grateful for not being claustrophobic. Through the goo she saw Oberon walking up to her and placing an hand on the slime. The cream seemed to be very effective as the goo quickly moved away from his fingers, making a relatively large opening. He gestured her to get over there, and Ara obliged. She stuck her head through the hole as the slime kept closing in on her.

"Ehr, I can't get through this..." she commented.

"You just need to keep your head out"

"... why am I not surprised?"

Shortly after she began to feel the goo against the fur of her tails. It was a bit warm, which was nice considering that the place was, on the contrary, rather cold. But the way it stuck to each and every single hair of her fur, completely enveloping it, was... not so pleasant. On top of it the slime, while it seemed to be still from the outside, was actually constantly moving, giving Ara the impression of being in the middle of several different streams of water colliding against each other. Which actually wasn't so bad. Truth be told, it felt almost like a massage. Not a great one, but still a massage. Things changed a bit when it reached the base of her tails, where she was more sensitive, the constant friction nearly causing her to gasp. The slimy dome kept closing in on her, turning into a slimy bubble, until only her head was left exposed to the air. Shortly after she felt her feet leaving the ground, the creature lifting her up as its body twisted and twirled -sometimes not too gently- against her. She wondered if that was how bathing in jelly would feel like.

The slime then slid underneath her gloves, threatening to tear them apart for a moment. The same happened with her thigh high and her shoes, causing her to chuckle for a brief moment. She then took a deep breath and forced herself to ignore the somewhat ticklish stimulation at her soles. Things got worse as the creature began to move underneath her dress. While the stimulation wasn't completely new to her as it was very similar to how the other slime felt, this one put much more strength into it, probably due to the sheer size difference. That, and this time she was pretty much completely enveloped in it. That said, her chest felt more... sensitive than usual. She briefly looked at Oberon, who was sitting much closer than usual, before averting her gaze, her cheeks quite red already.

Then the slime began to put pressure on her nipples, which she could deal with as she had been expecting it to happen. What she hadn't seen coming was being stinged right in the middle of them, from what exactly she had no idea as she could see nothing but jelly around her. The unexpected, brief but sharp jolt of pain made her let out a small lament. The following minutes went with relative calm, but while Ara got used to the slime constantly rubbing against her in different ways, she also started to feel hot. Too hot, actually. Then, the jelly started sucking against her skin, on her back. On an apparently random spot, and aside from the surprise, Ara didn't feel much from that. Then the feeling moved to her arm, then her leg, and it kept running around her body, aimlessly. Despite being fully dressed, the fact that the slime had snuck underneath every single piece of clothing she was wearing made her feel really naked. Then it suddenly hit her between her legs, inside her panties.

The jelly had been slightly stimulating her privates the whole time, but in an inconsistent -and mostly weak- enough way that she could bear with it easily. The same didn't apply to the sudden suction, which encompassed both her entrance and her clit. She gasped at the sudden jolt of pleasure that ran through her, the jelly thoroughly pulling between her legs. She almost instinctively brought her hands there, but the slime stopped her arms halfway. Not that she could do much about it anyway. She started sweating, and at the same time the slime began to slide uniformly against her skin, drinking every single drop the very moment they emerged from her body. When it started sucking more intensely against her entrance she got the confirmation that she was getting wet, especially as the slime seemed to notice that playing with her clit made her drip even more juices. Ara's voice began to escape her mouth, which rather surprised her as she thought she could deal with that level of stimulation.

Her tails slowly waving behind her, forcing their way through the jelly, she then felt the slime fiddling with her butt plug. And while it failed to remove it, it still caused it to move around inside her, as well as push and pull it several times, something she definitively felt. Her breath started to get a bit ragged as she tried to keep her voice to a minimun, since apparently she couldn't keep it inside her throat. Was it because of her smaller body? ... did that even make sense?

Her mind got abruptly brought to other matters as the slime penetrated her, a protuberance thinner than a finger but long enough to reach her cervix suddenly entered her. Her fur -that on her ears at least- pricked up as she let out a moan. She really wanted something to hold on to, but there was nothing within her reach. Then the gelatinous thread inside her started enflating, but only the part which was inside her, without actually spreading her entrance open, quickly filling her insides, completely covering her inner walls and sticking to her cervix. Feeling herself so full with nearly no penetration -in a certain way- was something new to Ara, and thus something she didn't know how to deal with. And when the jelly started spinning inside her, the only response she could come up with was biting her lips to at least keep herself from moaning. Too loudly at least.

Her ears standing straight up -just like her fur-, Ara clenched her fists as she tried to withstand the pleasure which was assaulting her. Then, however, the slime slid inside her cervix, a mixture of pain and pleasure jolting though her as she reflexively dug her fingernails into her own flesh, her mouth failing to hold in what sounded like both a moan and a scream. The slime then moved into her uterus and began to envelope it from the inside. Normally, that wouldn't have been possible without gravely hurting Ara -and it also would have been only painful, not pleasurable in the slightest- but just like that time with the fox, her body wasn't that of a normal human at the moment, and that allowed for more... peculiar intercourse.

As she felt the pleasure build up more and more, she realized that the incoming one was her first orgasm. Maybe it was because of her younger body, but normally she would have probably had two or three already by that point. Her mind was brought away from that thought as her climax shook her body -or rather, her head and ears, as everything else was held relatively still. Thankfully, between her nails in her own flesh and the slime being more than a bit too deep within her, that orgams felt rather satisfying. For one reason or another, her partner nearly stopped moving, which gave her some room for catching her breath.

She nearly shrieked when something grabbed her ankles, only to realize that it was Oberon, who had pushed his arm inside the red jelly. He pulled her down along the edge of the goo, enough for them to stand face to face without actually taking her outside the slime.

"Are you thirsty?" he asked as he showed her a bottle of water.

"Ah, ehr... actually, yes" she replied, her ears twitching a few times.

He wiped some sweat off her forehead before helping her drink -her arms were still stuck inside the slime- and she quickly gulped down around two liters. Then something happened.

"... is it normal for it to stop moving? I mean, completely?"

"It already did?"

Oberon rested his hand -the one covered in cream- on the goo, then closed his fingers before it could move away. And then he... ate it. Or not, as he didn't actually swallow it.

"Judging by the taste" he said as he let the slime drop from his mouth to the floor, from where it went to join back with the main body "It does seem to be satiated. Rather odd"

_I... I'll just not ask how you could tell that from the... taste..._

Then he grabbed Ara by a shoulder and started pulling her out, rather slowly. Rather than sticking to her body, the slime stuck to itself, trying to maintain an overall spherical shape. Chills ran down her spine as air, which felt almost freezing compared to the inside of that goo, came into contact with her skin.

"W-wait a moment" she said once her belly -and part of her tails- were brought out.

And he did stop. The next twenty or so seconds of silence and stillness, however, felt rather awkward.

"... what's the matter?" he eventually asked.

"It's just that... it's in m... in my..." she started saying, what little redness had left her face now returning to her cheeks "It's in... inside m-my... my u..."

"Uterus?"

Her ears stood straight up, as if in alert, her fur pricked up as she looked down to hide her face. Not that Oberon could see it anyway, considering that he was holding her in a way that left the back of her head facing towards him. Truth be told, he was surprised. Human anatomy wasn't something he knew much of, but as far as his knowledge went the cervix was supposed to be basically closed except when giving birth. And that slime wasn't aggressive, which meant it should have stopped upon reaching the cervix. The fact that it moved past it could only mean that, for one reason of another, it was either open or not stiff enough to make it stop there. Though it was probably better to think about that later. So, how to deal with that? After a couple of minutes of nothing happening, Ara grew worried. Well, more than she already was. Then Oberon rested an hand over her belly.

"... ehr...?" she commented, without forming any real question.

He estimated how much of the slime was inside her.

"I hadn't considered this possibility, I'm sorry"

"I-is it that bad?" she asked as her ears began to twitch.

"No"

She took a deep, deep breath of relief, though saying she was relaxed when Oberon started pulling her out again would have been false. And while a part of her calmed down when her legs started to leave the slime too, another part remained nervous. Probably because she could still feel the hot goo inside her. Once free, her tails instinctively waved around, as if to shake off the jelly, though there wasn't any on her fur. When her feet finally touched the ground, the first thing she did was stretch her limbs. She didn't feel particularly tired, which was rather refreshing. She also didn't feel particularly satisfied, but she kicked that thought away. Not as quickly as usual, however. Then she rested her hands over her belly.

"So... how do we get it... out?" she asked. On the bright side, being that short meant that all she had to do to avoid meeting Oberon's eyes was not look up.

"We just need to split it into smaller pieces, once they get tiny enough they will spontaneously go back to the main body"

"Oh, that's... easier than I had thought. ... wait" she then added as her tails stopped waving "... how exactly would we do that?"

Oberon looked down. Actually, he had been doing that since quite a while, but Ara was sternly keeping her face down.

"It has already eaten enough, so luring it out with food is not an option. Unless you're willing to let it there for five to ten days"

"Absolutely not!" she replied. Then she realized she had raised her face and looked him in the eyes, which, given what they were talking about, made her blush even more.

"Normally I would propose to go inside and take it out piece by piece..."

"Absolutely! Not!" she screamed, her face possibly even redder than it was when she was engulfed in the slime.

"... but given your current size, that doesn't seem like a good option either"

"S-so... any alternative... ?"

"Vacuum it out"

Silence. Then silence. Then some more silence.

"... come again?" she eventually said.

"I don't know if its presence inside your uterus is dangerous or not, so I think it would be for the better if we don't wait much longer"

"No no no, wait a moment, how would we do that in the first p... " she started asking, then she catched up to the "dangerous" part. Truth be told, wether that was actually dangerous or not was something she had no idea about, but the thought itself was rather worrying. Especially so when considering how long she'd have to keep that thing inside her were they to wait for it to get hungry.

Her mind turned into a storm for the next minute, but she eventually decided.

"A-alright then..."

Oberon then looked around. The furniture -what little there was- was mostly broken beyond usability, but there was a table, or rather a third of a table, which seemed to be relatively stable.

"There" he said as he headed there, Ara hesitantly following him.

He briefly wiped the table, rising a cloud of dust in the process, before grabbing her and making her sit over the wooden remnant of furniture. She squirmed in protest -for one reason or another, she didn't like being lifted like that-, more with her tails than with her limbs, then he... handed her another bottle.

"Still thirsty?"

"... well, yes..." she replied, taken somewhat aback by the sudden question. Where did he keep that bottle?

Deciding not to think about that, she started drinking, her body still in the process of cooling down. The water felt pleasantly fresh in her throat. Then she realized Oberon had kneeled down right in front of her and had pulled her on the edge of the table. Having a really bad feeling about where things were going, she nearly chocked on the drink at the sight, which in turn meant she didn't manage to say anything before Oberon simply pushed her panties aside, rested his mouth over her entrance and started, well, sucking.

The feeling itself wasn't much pleasurable -if at all- as that's not what he was trying to accomplish anyway. As for the sensation of the slime being pulled away from her insides like that, well, that was a different story. Although what dominated Ara's mind at the moment was sheer embarassment. And uncomfortability too, though that was probably mainly due to her current size, which made the whole situation feel... even less right than it would normally feel. She managed to finally gulp down the water when Oberon put some distance between his mouth and her groin, although the sight of him nonchalantly letting red goo drop from his mouth to the floor briefly left her speechless.

"T-t-this was..."

"Do you feel it moving?" he interrupted her.

"That's not the point!"

"That is, indeed, the point, as that's the reason we're doing this in the first place"

"That's..." she replied as she lowered her ears.

"So?"

"N... no, it's not... moving..."

At which he simply placed his mouth back against her privates and started sucking again, with utmost calm. Or at least apparently. As for Ara, she closed her eyes and tried to think about something -anything- else, even though that ended up making her focus more on the slime detaching itself from her inner walls. As she felt herself getting less and less... full, her uterus began to throb slightly, a sensation rather hard to describe. She told him to stop and he pulled away, letting the jelly fall from his mouth.

As for Ara, her body tensed up as she felt the slime starting to crawl within her. Her voice suddenly broke when the slime forced her cervix open from the wrong side, causing an unquiet and rather long moan to escape her lips. Whether that was caused by the jelly or by the growth of her seventh tail, Oberon wasn't sure. She ran her nails against what was left of the table as the creature slowly moved towards its only way out, gently scraping her inner walls as it went by, until it reached her entrance and started pouring out. The whole process actually lasted four minutes, five at most, but for one reason or another left her more exhausted than the rest of the session had.

Oberon made sure there wasn't any left inside her then, perhaps out of habit, he grabbed her and started walking to the exit. Though this time he made her sit on his arm -with her face towards his chest because her tails were too cumbersome- while holding her with the other one.

"Do you want to take a bath?"

"Only if it's by myself"

The next few minutes were filled with nothing but the sound of his footsteps. As he walked, however, he noticed something. It was just a litte, but she had grown some fur on the back of her hands. When Ara opened her eyes, she found herself in the bathroom. Did she pass out?

"I'll start making dinner" he said then.

"Sure..." she replied, and as she did so he observed that she also had... well, fangs. If he had to judge by her lack of reaction, however, she had yet to notice. He wondered if she'd turn completely into a fox when the last two tails appeared. That would be... troublesome.

"I'll leave this here" he added before walking out.

Ara took a few minutes to relax, then started filling the bathtub, got undressed and proceeded to enjoy her bath. Once she got out, however, she saw what Oberon had left there. She picked it up to get a better look. The size was definitively different -it was her current one-, but that was without a doubt a chastity belt.

"... for real... ?"


	19. Which One?

**Which One?**

Ara stared at the belt, somewhat bewildered.

"Did he make it along with the clothes? ... no, he'd have given it to me back then if that were the case" she thought out loud as she took it in her hands. ... and noticed a little fur on their back.

"W... wait"

Had she ever grown fur before -tails and ears aside-? No, that had never happened before, she was sure of it. So what was going on? She wasn't going to turn into a fox like Eun, right? ... no, that was unlikely. Eun would've warned her of that if there really was a chance of it happening. But the fur was there. What else would appear if case she couldn't get those tails to disappear? The coldness on her hand brought her mind back to the chastity belt. Her ears twitched once or twice. Then she noticed a small note on the floor.

"The lock might be broken and remain open. If that is the case, tell me and I'll fix it"

She stood there for a short while. Was that... his way of letting her keep the belt off for a while? On one hand, she had an hard time thinking that that was the case. On the other, Oberon just handing her a possibly broken belt simply telling her that it might not work seemed just as weird. What if she just left it there and told him that it was indeed broken? On second thought, that was a bad idea. There might be consequences if he found out the belt wasn't really malfunctional. Which meant she had to at least try it on. And so she did just that, with a rather loud sigh. The cold metal slid along her skin, reached her privates and covered them. Then she tried to close it.

The lock clicked... and slid back, still open. She probably should have given it at least a second try just to be sure but that really wasn't something she really wanted to get to work -it wasn't, right?- so she simply dropped the belt and got dressed, trying to ignore the fact that her normal panties felt a bit too light in comparison. She brought the broken belt to her room to avoid Rena walking in the bathroom and stumbling upon it, then headed to the kitchen, crossing paths with the elf on the stairs.

"Are you allright?" she asked, quite worried.

"I'm fine... mostly. It wasn't as bad as I had feared" Ara replied.

"That's nice to hear. Dinner is ready, I was just about to come to call you"

The meal went by uneventfully, except for Ara realizing that she now had fangs rather than simple teeth, but compared to all the other changes that didn't feel too special -for one reason or another-, and once they were done eating the elf headed to the bathroom for a shower while the other two remained there to clean up.

"Does the belt work?" Oberon asked suddenly, though Ara knew that question was coming.

"No, it doesn't"

"I see. I'll fix when I have enough time. Do you feel like working again tomorrow?"

"A-already?"

"There aren't any leftovers inside you, so if you're not too tired there's nothing stopping you from working"

"T-that..." she replied, blushing at the mention of all the times her... coworkers came inside her "W... with this body again?"

"It's not a problem if you prefer waiting to turn back to normal"

"... with... what, this time?"

"A plant. It should be a rather easy session"

"A plant? How am I supposed to... can a person even... well... d-do it with a plant?" she asked, carefully avoiding eye contact.

"... it probably can't be called sexual intercourse, you're right.. If you do decide to work tomorrow, however, I recommend to drink a lot"

She thought about it. Knowing that she was much closer than she had initially thought to paying off her debt spurred her forward. And the slime didn't really satisfy her, truth be told. Oddly enough, Ara didn't really reject the second point that time, she just told herself that it wasn't as important as the first one.

"... I'll do it" she answered, raising her gaze enough to look Oberon in the eyes.

"Take this then" he said as he gave her a bottle filled to the brim with a green fluid "Drink all of it before going to sleep. It's to keep you safer tomorrow"

"Should I... worry?" she asked while looking at the drink, which didn't really give off an healthy vibe.

"As much as every other time, I guess"

_... ... ..._

She grabbed the bottle and headed back to her room. She thought about getting herself off since she had the chance, but then considered that maybe not doing that might make the following day's session more enjoyable. Oberon said there'd be no proper intercourse, but that was just because the definition didn't really apply to human-plant action, right? ... did it happen to human-animal anyway? She wasn't sure, and she didn't even really want to think much about something like that. As a matter of fact, however, she felt confident that things would play out nicely. Then she buried her blushing face in the bed's pillow upon realizing just what thoughts she'd been having.

After a few minutes she got back up, took the bottle and started drinking. It tasted surprisingly sweet, and she had no trouble gulping it all down. Or rather, the flavor wasn't a problem, but since those were three liters she actually had to force herself to drink all of it, especially because she'd just had dinner. Then she took off her clothes, keeping only her underwear on, brought Obe on the bed and went to sleep, hugging him with arms and tails.

* * *

Nothing special happened the next morning. If anything, Ara was relieved to see that Oberon was apparently done treating her the way he did the previous day. Though she had no idea why he acted that way. Truth be told, she suspected he just acted normally and she was the one seeing things the wrong way. Or maybe he really wanted to get back at her for how she had treated him when the positions were switched. Regardless of that, Rena went to work after lunch as usual, and soon after Ara and Oberon stepped inside the elevator as well, carrying some bottles of water with them. This time they went all the way to the eleventh floor, which for some reason worried Ara. Once there they headed to the first door. The antechamber was filled with glass boxes, most of which were empty. Those that weren't contained flowers around as large as an adult's hand, each of several different shades of colors, though most were either blue or purple. Ara took a couple of deep breaths, partially trying to ignore the fact that she was actually a bit... eager to step inside the dome. When they did, they found themselves at the base of a dune. A sand one.

"This isn't the wrong place, right?" she asked.

"What makes you think that?"

"A desert isn't where I'd expect to find a plant"

"There are plants in the desert though"

"That's not what I meant..."

"You drank the whole bottle, right?"

"Yes, I did"

She wanted to ask what was that, but she also felt that asking that now would just seem silly.

As for the desert itself, it wasn't as hot as one would expect. Actually, the temperature was pleasantly warm. There wasn't much wind either. They walked for quite a while, and as much as she looked around, Ara saw no signs of plants, at least not until they got past a particularly tall dune. From there she could actually see a sort of weird tree, rather close too. They reached it soon enough, and upon close inspection she realized that, rather than a tree, that was a bunch of tangled creepers, though she had no idea what might be supporting them. Or rather, they seemed to either be supporting each other or simply not having a support in the first place. Which would probably mean they actually weren't creepers to begin with. There were several flowers sprouting from here and there, and in the upper part of the fake tree they were so many and so large that they really resembled a tree's foliage, casting a rather wide shadow beneath them. The interweaved plants -assuming they really were several different ones- seemed to extend deep under the sand. That... probably wasn't solid footing she guessed.

"... what am I supposed to do?" she asked, with no clue about how to act.

"Touch it with your bare skin, that should be enough" Oberon replied as he took some steps forward and sat down, at little more than an arm's length from the "trunk".

"Touch it" she repeated as she closed in.

She noticed several tendrils extending from the base of the tangle. Quite a few were also half hidden underneath the sand, which probably meant there were more completely buried. Just as she thought that, Ara felt something move under her feet. She took another step forward, and a couple of what seemed to be a middleground of sort between lianas and vines emerged from the sand and briefly moved aroud with no apparent aim before wrapping themselves around her ankles. A couple of seconds of nothing happening followed, and then Ara got suddenly dragger towards the tangle, the abrupt pull making her fall on her back. The sand wasn't too bad of a gound to smash her head against, but the creepers-made trunk turned out to be surprisingly sturdy when her rear hit it, hard. That actually hurt, not too much but still. She was about to say something, but then stopped as she realized that talking to a plant was probably pointless. That's, more pointless than talking to apparently horny animals was.

Her legs had been pulled along the trunk for their whole length, bringing her groin against it as more lianas emerged from the sand and wrapped themselves around both her legs and the tangle, securing her to it. And just as she tried to get back up, several new vines rised from beneath her, twisting themselves around her chest and arms and pulling her back down against the sand. They seemed to ignore her tails though. Ara just... stood there. She wasn't calm, but she also wasn't really nervous. She was actually almost looking forward to whatever was going to happen. The thought was kicked away from her mind not too quickly, and just as that went on inside her head, something stung her on her arm. And leg. And belly. A bit all over, whenever the vines were. The hardly noticeable pain however lingered, and actually started... moving in a bit deeper under her skin.

"H-hey... Oberon, is this..."

"It's not harmful" he answered before she could even finish her question.

"I sure hope so..." she replied as she felt what probably were roots latching to her skin.

"You drank herbicide exactly to make sure this wouldn't be dangerous in the sligthest"

"That was herbicide?!"

"Had it been toxic, I wouldn't have asked you to drink it"

"I... guess..."

Having a plant grow roots in the upper layers of her skin was nowhere near as painful as she'd have imagined something like that to be, but it was quite distressing anyway. Her tails moved around, at least those which hadn't ended up completely between her back and the sand, as the weak pain began fading. Then something started falling from the fake foliage, causing her to sneeze a couple of times. Was that pollen? The smell was really pungent, and hit her nostrils hard. Soon after, she felt something against her skin, and saw a few very small flowers blooming here and there from the roots on her skin. She found that... not as uncanny as she would have expected. And when she felt their petals pushed against both her breasts and her entrance by her own underwear -clearly they'd bloomed inside there too- the fact became simply awkward.

To make things worse, those petals made her skin tingle. Not much on her arms or legs as they hardly touched them, only the roots being in actual contact with her skin, but rather on her more... sensitive areas, where the whole flower was pushed against her. Her tails kept waving lightly against the moved her fingers around a bit as nothing else happened. Basking in the shadow in the middle of a desert sounded like a relatively nice thing to do, but considering that her position wasn't too comfortable and that the temperature was far from that one would expect from such a place meant that it actually wasn't such a great experience.

She sneezed again as the temperature seemed to rise slightly. The urge to... let's say scratch herself kept increasing slowly, and Ara tried to ignore it. Oberon said there'd be no proper intercourse, but he said that only because it doesn't make much sense to talk about intercourse between a person and a plant. That was surely the reason. Something was bound to happen. It had to. That train of thoughts distracted Ara for a while, as well as turning her cheeks red, but as time went on nothing really happened. Well, almost nothing. The flowers seemed to be growing larger. They looked quite nice, if a bit uncanny, on her skin, and felt even more tingly underneat her underwear. And even without that, her body had been steadily getting hotter since quite a while.

The plant pulled her up a bit along its trunk as she started sweating, causing her pelvis to raise up, just enough for her dress to roll back down a bit. Her blush grew a tiny bit brighter as her panties were left exposed, though the petals sticking out from underneath them made for a really odd view. On the bright side, they made it so that Oberon couldn't see that she was wet. She looked to the side, and noticed that he was reading his usual book, casting glances over her every few seconds.

"S-say" she spoke, her voice not really hiding her frustration "Is something... going to happen?" she asked, trying to be as indirect as possible about it.

"Not really"

_... oh, come on..._

"The plant will simply keep drinking from you. Once it has taken in enough herbicide from your system it will release you"

"W... what if that doesn't work?"

"Then we'd use one of the back up plans" Oberon replied, and the conversation ended there since she wasn't sure she wanted to know what those other plans were.

The pollen kept falling, and Ara felt her privates getting more and more tingly. It was getting quite hot there. Or maybe it was just her. She realized that the plant was drinking her sweat, and something else as well. She wanted to touch herself, in all honesty, but her arms were quite bound at the moment. Her breathing was getting a bit ragged, if only from her excitement, and as time went by, not struggling to at least try to free her hands became more and more difficult. Because she was afraid that doing so would be like telling him that she wanted to masturbate, and she was quite sure she wouldn't be able to stand the embarrassment.

To make things worse, thinking about him in that situation brought her mind back to that one morning, which made the tingling of her privates feel even stronger than before. On the bright side, however, that was keeping her attention away from the -much less- bothersome tingling she was feeling a bit all over her skin, though that wasn't really a great consolation. She kept not struggling, biting down on her lips instead in an attempt to endure the frustration which was getting more and more intense. Maybe she hadn't realized it, but the only reasons her own fluids weren't dripping down along her skin was that the flower was drinking them up.

"Thirsty?" Oberon asked.

She turned her head back and saw him sitting at less than an arm's length from her, his book in one hand, a bottle of water in the other.

"Y-yes" she replied.

He helped her raise her head up a bit to make drinking easier and held the neck of the bottle against her lips, letting her drink until she emptied the whole thing. That said, she still felt hot. In more than one way too.

"Say" she then spoke "What's that book? You've been reading it since before I started... uh, working here?"

She couldn't really do much in that situation anyway, so maybe talking about something unrelated might help ignoring the tingling, which was threatening to become overbearing. Oberon didn't reply immediatly. He listened to her slighty ragged breath for a couple of seconds as he wondered how to form his answer.

"It's a manual" he answered then.

"And what is it about?"

A brief silence, during which he seemed to ponder how to articulate his reply. Truth be told, that wasn't the same book he was reading back when Ara arrived, but for some reason the bookseller Oberon always bought from had all of his books with neither words nor images on both the front and the back, making them look like each other except for size differences. But he also tried his best to make sure they all were around the same size as well. Why, Oberon didn't know, and he also figured it wasn't important enough to tell Ara about it at the moment, so he based his reply on what the book he was reading at the moment was.

"The different kind of possible responses given by an electric system as reaction to a large array of different external events that cause an internal response of varying nature, and the way the system's casing can be secured in place in different ways depending on the necessity to avoid having it slip away while operating on it"

"... come again?"

"It's about how something reacts to different things and how to analyse and obtain such reactions"

"You just went from one extreme to the other"

"I'd like to ask you something too"

"... sure" she replied after having decided that she could always just ask him to see the book and avoid more contrived answers. In a more normal situation, that is. With that said, however, she had an inexplicable bad feeling about whatever it is that he wanted to ask.

"Why did you turn down the photo shoot?"

"I-is there anything else you wanted to ask?"

A brief silence.

"You've been acting rather strangely in the past few days"

"Ahahah, do you... think so... ?" she replied, her voice growing weaker as words left her mouth.

"I would appreciate it if you answered the first question" he said with his usual, neutral tone.

_This isn't distracting at all!_

"I-I just that... a photo shoot means there'd be photos around that people would be able to see..."

"What about your public performance then?"

"T-that was just a one-time thing! There are no recordings of it and nobody took any kind of photo!" she replied, her ears twitching wildly, her tails flailing around.

"... technically speaking" Oberon said after a brief silence "I and the others have recorded it"

"W-wh... what?!" she shouted. For some reason that revelation made her feel even more sensitive, which in turn increased her frustration even more. She forgot to not struggle against the vines.

"In order for us to have a memory, we store all informations we perceive in an inner hard disk, and if need be we can export the data from there to other platforms"

"But... you won't, right?"

"I have no reason to do so" he replied, at which Ara took a breath of relief "Unless the mistress tells me to. Do you want another bottle?"

Ara decided that drinking was the best way to kill off that conversation, and took him up on the offer. That, and she was thirsty too. Nothing else really happened. Her arousal kept increasing, bringing her frustration to new heights as the tingling feeling grew stronger and stronger, while the pollen formed a visible layer over her -Oberon wiped it off her face a few times- and her limbs gradually lost strength. At one point she bit her lips to prevent herself from shouting, as that was the only thing she could do to let off some steam but at the same time she didn't really want to. She closed her eyes and tried to think about something else, and ended up replaying an old game of chess in her head. With an advertising break about her "professional" encounters at the menagerie every two moves. When the game ended she was in a much worse state than when it began.

At that point Ara either forgot about why she wasn't struggling against the vines or decided that the reason she had before was no longer valid enough. But as she did so, she realized that her limbs had grown even weaker than she had realized. More time went by, she ended up drinking all the water they had brought along, and Ara resorted to biting her lips to try and focus more on the pain rather than the frustration. Her fangs did dig into her flesh easily after all.

"We should head back" Oberon then said, apparently out of the blue.

"Eh?"

She looked down -her gaze had been lost on the sky for a while, following the sun as it began to set- and noticed that the flowers were no longer blooming and the roots were gone from her skin. She still felt hot and tingling, but she was hardly sweating anymore.

"... I... can't" Ara said as she moved her tails to cover up her panties. With the flower gone, she had started soaking them.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not really feeling my limbs. I can't move them"

"... how odd" he replied as he moved to pick her up.

"W-wait, what do you mean "odd"? This isn't normal?" she asked, worried.

"It's probably a side effect of the pollen due to your current physical condition. ... I'm talking about the fox traits, not about your height" he then added when Ara gave him a weird stare "If it were something serious we would already know, so you should get back in shape by tomorrow"

"I-is that so..."

Ara screamed internally, with no idea about how she managed to not scream vocally as well since that meant she couldn't even touch herself, even though -as far as she knew at least- the chastity belt wasn't ready yet. And the tingling was killing her at that point. She somehow managed to keep a vague -really vague, truth be told- semblance of composure all the way to the bathroom. As they walked in, however, they found Rena already showering. The elf turned towards them, quite unfazed by their sudden entrance. Or rather, she seemed just a bit surprised.

"I have a few things to take care of" Oberon said then as he placed Ara down "Can you help her wash while I prepare dinner?"

"... sure... " Rena replied, a bit confused. "... so, what happened?" she then asked Ara, as soon as Oberon left.

"W... well..."

Ara screamed internally again. Twice.

* * *

An hour or so went by. Rena showered Ara in her place since she couldn't move, dried her up and brought her to her own room -Obe was hidden and out of sight-, placed her lying on the bed, then walked downstairs to the kitchen. There she found dinner ready and served, but Oberon was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was a note left on the table saying that something important came up and he had to deal with it as soon as possible. Shrugging it off, the elf went back to Ara's room and informed her of the situation, asked her if she wanted to be spoon-fed since she still couldn't move, and walked away when she replied that she'd just eat something once she could order her limbs around again. At that point, Ara took a few deep breaths and waited a short while. A too short while maybe. She wasn't sure Rena had noticed just how aroused she was, but at the moment she didn't even really care that much.

"Obe" she called out.

The improper body pillow came out of hiding and mechanically stood up.

"Take the key and lock the door" she ordered "The key is in the first drawer" she added then as Obe didn't seem to know where she had left it. Which made sense.

He was moving a bit slower than when she had him make her bed, but maybe that was just because he'd done that quite a few times already and had gotten used to it. Or whatever the equivalent of "getting used to it" was for a low-level ai-driven doll, to use Eve's own words. Sometimes it still didn't feel real that Eve and Oberon were machines.

"Take off the blanket" she said then, the anticipation and excitement torturing her, the tingling feeling only enhancing both of those feelings.

Again, Obe followed her orders.

"Pull m..." she started saying before some remnants of shame stopped her. Briefly.

"Pull my p-panties down"

He complied, as emotionlessly as ever. She couldn't really see her own privates in that position, but she could still feel herself being wet. So much so that she was probably drenching the sheets too. She could feel his gaze on her entrance, and the only reason she didn't blush was that her cheeks had already turned red when she had him... it... Obe remove her underwear.

"F... fi... fi-finger m-me" she said, her tails waving nervously, her ears twitching back and forth.

The mechanical doll got on the bed and sat on his knees in order to have a better reach then, without any ceremony, slid a finger inside Ara. She jumped up slightly, probably because that was a reflex rather than a willing motion, but the light movement of a single finger was not enough. It was so far from what she needed that it only increased her frustration even more, doing absolutely nothing to alleviate her tingling. Especially because Obe inserted his index but actually didn't move it at all.

"U-use... more fingers. And m-move... twist them a-around"

Oberon's small replica did as he was told, and Ara could finally feel her tingling getting scratched. She bit her lips both to hold her voice down and to not miss out on an orgasm which she was feeling getting closer, her muscles contracting and relaxing on their own in response to the blissfully stimulation she was finally receiving. Her climax made her dig her teeth in her own flesh so much she started bleeding, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. That wasn't enough.

"Lower my dress and gro... grab my chest" she ordered between her ragged breaths "F-fondle it" she then added as Obe literally grabbed her -temporarily- small breasts and nothing else.

"D-don't stop your fingers... a-a bit deeper in..." Ara instructed him, with a small part of her mind constantly repeating that what she was doing was simple masturbation and that Obe wasn't really alive.

She then had him remove her bra and tweak her nipples, then went back to bite her lips soon before the second orgams ran through her body, her fur pricked up while her ears stood straight up. But the tingling was still there. She closed her eyes and focused exclusively on the pleasure she was feeling, savoring it as much as she could, occasionally giving Obe directives about how to move his fingers. At one point she had him move his hand from her breasts to her clit and start rubbing it, quickly building up another orgasm which made Ara arc her back as the sweet feeling encompassed her body.

She then told Obe to fondle her chest with both hands becuase she needed to catch her breath but also didn't want a real break, but soon ordered him to lick both her entrance and clit instead while fingering her. Having her breasts fondled reminded her of her current height, which made the whole thing feel somewhat immoral, even though it probably wasn't. That said, Ara choked on every other word when giving Obe that last command, since telling him to do that also made everything just that much more embarassing. His movements weren't exactly that of an expert, but Ara's arousal was so high at the moment that even those were enough to send waves of pleasure crashing against her whole system, her already ragged breath getting more and more irregular with every lick and scratch. Her third orgasm nearly made her convulse, sparks flying in her mind as she got lost in the pleasure, the pain from her bleeding lips allowing her to get to an even higher level of ecstasy.

As the echo of the climax resounded in her body, Obe didn't stop, nor did she tell him to. Instead she closed her eyes and threw her head back, the still lingering pleasure ramping back up again every time his tongue ran against her clit, every time his fingers pushed against her insides, his already cold body feeling almost freezing against her burning up flesh, the sloppy noised caused by Ara's wetness making her even more conscious of what she was doing.

"M-more... ahh... aahh... r-r... rougher!" she almost shouted, completely forgetting that Rena might hear her.

For a frighteningly long second the feeling of Obe's touch disappeared without a warning, leaving Ara if not shocked then simply speechless, but almost immediatly she felt him grab her and pull her closer to the bed frame, her legs falling down as her hips were brought on the very edge of the bed. He then firmly grasped her, pulled her up a bit and restarted licking her entrance. With the very idea of holding her voice back completely gone from her thoughts, Ara started moaning rather loudly, her breathing getting more and more irregular every time the cold tongue ran against her clit. Obe then pushed his index inside her, while inserting his middle finger in her butt. She shrieked, her fur standing right up as more and more jolts of pleasure ran through her. She felt the two fingers bending and twisting around inside of her, but she still wasn't satisfied, and pretty much shouted again at Obe to get rougher.

And, as usual, the doll followed her directives and began sucking on her clit, almost violently, while shoving four fingers inside her entrance and using them to stir and scratch her insides. At the same time he moved his free hand in front of her butt and pushed two fingers inside, which were quickly followed by a third one, each moving around in a different way. Ara let herself get lost in the blissful feeling, the fact that she couldn't actually see what he was doing while lying down making the pleasure even stronger, her ears twitching crazily as her own voice echoed in the room, up until she bit her lips again as she felt her next orgasm approaching, getting closer with every wave of pleasure running through her body, all the way to the tip of her tails, until it hit her like a tide crashing against her every nerve, her muscles contracting as her fangs spilled blood from her own lips, the pain triggering an even greater ecstasy.

Then she felt something new. Her climax was still shaking her very bones when Obe pushed his whole hand inside of her, the sudden pressure pushed against her inner walls sending additional jolts through her body, with several others following as his fingers began scratching her from within, much deeper than before. Ara pretty much lost her breath, the pleasure violently coursing through her every fiber without subsiding as Obe kept stimulating her in three different ways all at once, the ecstasy making it pretty much impossible for her to think straight. She remained in that state of bliss for a short while, until her body started to tremble. Then she somehow managed to gather enough air in her lungs to tell Obe to stop.

Though she clearly didn't say it loud enough, since Obe kept going. The pleasure, which was already overwhelming, kept increasing, making it even harder for Ara to breathe, let alone say something. She felt another orgasm approaching, but this time she forced herself to not bite herself, and while she was still feeling some residual pain from the previous bites, the lack of a proper trigger weaked the following orgasm, not enoug for it to not shake her whole body again, but at least enough for her to gather some air in her lungs, enough to shout at Obe to stop. And apparently he heard her this time, as his fingers and tongue stopped moving. Then she felt his hand sliding out from within her, sending another shock through her body, one more, loud moan escaping her mouth.

Ara then started catching her breath, her tails lying all around her, sweat covering her skin and a different kind of fluid drenching her lower half. The pleasure was still reverberating within her, which caused her to still let out a moan every now and then, but the tingling had finally gone away.

Exhaustion quickly overcame her, and sleep arrived soon after.

* * *

The first thing Ara did the next morning was yawning. The second one was stretching her limbs. The third one was realizing that she could move them again. The fourth one was remembering what she'd done with Obe, which made her hide under the sheets. Or at least made her try, her tails being a big too cumbersome for that. She took some minutes to calm down, then prepared a change of clothes and... clothes. The ones she was wearing were torn, leaving her basically naked. She looked at Obe, which was still lying where she had left it, and found that he was no longer as tall as her. She checked with a few other things just to make sure, before confirming. She was back to her normal height! ... and the chastity belt was back in its place too... when did that happen? To take her mind off that, she told herself that she needed a shower. A quick one probably, since her stomach decided to kindly remind her that she'd skipped dinner the previous day and was in need of nourishment. She headed to the bathroom, had a quick shower then dried herself and got changed into her asymmetrical dress.

Her hair and tails were still rather wet when she entered the kitchen -she was hungry, and as long as she wasn't leaving a trail of water behind her it was fine- and there she found Rena.

"Oh, you're back to normal. Thankfully" the elf commented while eating.

"... where is Oberon?" she asked as she sat down. Breakfast was ready and served, but he wasn't around.

"Don't think about him for now"

"... did... something happen?"

"... Ara" Rena then spoke, intentioned to change subject "Don't take this the wrong way, but could you be a bit quieter when you masturbate?"

Ara nearly chocked on her drink.

"W-w-wha..." she replied, her cheecks turning red as her stails swayed aimlessly behind her.

She realized only at that point that she had forgotten about keeping her voice down the previous night. No, not even that, she had completely disregarded the very idea of doing so.

"Y-you're r-right, s... sorry..." Ara said, her gaze locked on the table as she grabbed something to eat.

"Since we're on the subject already" the elf added then "Do you always talk as if there's someone else there when you do that?"

This time Ara nearly chocked on a brioche.

"Y-yes!" she almost shouted, her face bright red "Is that w-weird?!"

"I... think not..." Rena replied, taken aback by the sudden outburst.

A rather long silence followed, and the two of them decided to simply have breakfast for the time being.

"... but" Ara eventually added "Why shouldn't I think about Oberon?"

Rena didn't reply immediatly. Instead she took a deep breath, then looked Ara in the eyes.

"Oberon..." she then said "... I met him this morning while you were having a shower, and... he was using the smaller body again" she spoke.

Ara's mind briefly stopped working, and her skin grew pale, turning almost the same color as her fur.

"W... w... when... ?"

"I'm not sure, but the last time I saw him with his normal body was when he brought you into the bathroom yesterday. If that's what you wanted to know. Considering how you acted last time, I thin-"

Without waiting for the elf to finish her sentence, Ara darted off, headed to her room. She closed the door behind her and grabbed Obe.

"You were Obe, right? Right? Right?!"

The mechanical body pillow didn't answer.

"... a-after all, Oberon should still be using the small body, so... if this one is him, then I won't meet him in the menagerie, right?"

She told Obe to hide again, and after making sure he did so she walked out, a storm of thoughts in her head. And right there was Oberon. In his usual, tall body.

"Good morning" he said with his usual, composed voice.

At which Ara reflexively pointed her shaky finger at him and told the only thing she could come up with, her face redder than a ripe tomato.

"W-which one was it? Which one?!"


	20. Foggy With a Chance of Absent-Mindedness

**Foggy With a Chance of Absent-Mindedness  
**

"Which one what?" he asked back, tilting his head clockwise a bit.

"I-I mean... that's..."

Ara's voice died down, consumed by doubt. If what Rena said was true, and she had no reason to think she'd lie about something like that, then Oberon might really have switched places with Obe -which would mean the one Ara ordered around was indeed him and not Obe- and switched back after she left her room that morning. But... would he even do something like that? In case that was really all just in her head, asking him clearly would imply telling him both of Obe and of what she did with it. Granted, Oberon already knew of Obe, but Ara wasn't aware of that. As her mind tried to decide what to do, Rena walked upstairs, probably lured in by the scream.

"What happene- oh, thank heavens" the elf commented upon seeing Oberon's ordinary body.

"This" he then said as he handed a rather large box to Ara, who had been to caught up in her own thoughts to notice it before "Is for you"

"Ah... thanks..." she replied as she took it in her hands, though her thoughts were still elsewhere.

Oberon simply walked downstairs, asking Rena to come with him to discuss about one of the menagerie's guests, leaving Ara alone. A minute or so later, her mind came back to reality and she realized that she was holding something. She brought it back to her room, placed it on the bed and noticed that the sheets had been changed with clean ones. Her ears twitched at the sight, but she managed to convince herself that that had no implications about Oberon being Obe or the contrary or him knowing what happened or whatever it is that she suspected. She took a deep breath to calm down and opened the box.

Inside was a chess set. An odd looking one, with every piece being shaped like a different plant or tree. At first that seemed really unpractical, but upon closer inspection she realized that recognizing each piece was actually rather easy, if only just by comparing them to each other. The board itself was somewhat irregularly decorated in a way that strongly resembled a forest, especially with the pieces placed over it. She put the whole thing on the table, then walked out. Then she came back in, closed the door and pulled Obe out again.

"It was you yesterday, right? It wasn't Oberon. It wasn't him, was it?"

As usual, he didn't reply. Thinking about it, Oberon had been more... proactive that morning, while the previous evening he'd been rather passive -in context- doing only what she told him to, which did made her think that maybe she was really imagining things. She shook her head to think about other things, and walked down to the kitchen, for real this time. There she found him, in the middle of cleaning up after breakfast.

"Thanks" she said "For the chessboard"

"I'm not too practiced with the game" he replied "But I wouldn't mind playing when you feel like it. ... I" he then added "... wasn't sure what else you might like"

"D-don't worry about that" she replied, his last sentence sounding somewhat off "I don't have that many hobbies in the first place"

Silence.

"Do you want to try cooking something?" he eventually asked.

"... sure"

The results of her attempts are probably best left unknown.

* * *

The next day arrived surprisingly quickly. Ara had spent a good part of the previous afternoon theorycrafting board states in her room, if only because it'd been a long time since she'd done something like that, and that morning decided to take Oberon up on his offer and have a game -after breakfast, that is- and brought the chessboard to the kitchen. Rena, on her part, wasn't too interested in chess itself, but she was curious to see a match between a person and a machine so she sticked around to watch.

The game lasted somewhere between one and two hundred moves and went of for a bit more than seven hours, including a break for lunch and a couple more for going to the bathroom. At some point the elf decided to go get some work done and left. In the end, Oberon resigned.

"I have to be honest" he commented "I wasn't expecting this outcome"

"I'm quite good at chess" she replied cherfully.

""Quite" is most definitively an understatement"

"Eheh"

They spent another while talking about the match, until the subject got changed to work. By Ara.

"S... say, what about the next... well, the next session?" she asked, lowering her gaze a bit.

"... right. Since it's relatively late, however, I think it'd be better to postpone it to tomorrow"

"Sure"

She brought the chessboard back to her room, and there she noticed that her tails had gone back to being six. That was relieving. Playing really brought her mind away from her work. Though she still brought it up because it felt somewhat weird that Oberon hadn't done so himself yet. On top of that, she was a bit curious to see what other animals they had there. And with that she meant that she just wanted to completely pay off her debt. She buried her face in the pillow -the actual pillow of the bed, not Obe- to convince herself of that, as little sense as such a gesture probably made.

* * *

The first noteworthy thing to happen after that was Rena's announcement during lunch, the next day.

"Tomorrow and the day after I'll visit the last animals. I'll probably leave the following morning"

Oberon didn't really say anything, but Ara did.

"... wait. How many did you check on every day to be done already, now that I think about it?"

"Quite a few, actually" she replied "I'm skilled at this. And it's not the first time I've seen these exemplars, being already familiar with them considerably sped up the process"

"I see"

On one hand, Ara felt that the place might get a bit too empty with Rena gone, on the other that would mean that she wouldn't have to go out of her way to make sure she didn't find out about the few things she didn't want the elf to know about, so she had mixed feeling about it. ... and truth be told, the two of them actually didn't even interact that much, all things considered.

Another couple or so of hours went by, and the three of them got into the elevator. Ara and Oberon stepped down at the fifth floor and there headed to the third room, while Rena went to a deeper level. The antechamber they walked in this time was surprisingly empty, which kind of made Ara more anxious. Maybe it was because she had lost a tail since her last session, but she wasn't feeling too eager to get to work this time. Oberon had told her that her partner would be something similar to a ram, and that while the place it lived in was somewhat cold, she wouldn't need heavy clothes. It was kind of vague, or rather it was really vague, but she decided that it was enough. Then Oberon handed her the key and turned around, waiting for her to take off the chastity belt. She did so, without much hesitation but still blushing a bit, left it on the table and gave him back the key. Then they stepped into the dome.

The inside of it was a plain. Or rather, the doorstep was in a plain in the middle of a slightly hilly landscape, with bushes and shrubs here and there, occasionally a tree as well. There was a faint mist hindering sight a bit, and a small narrow pathway heading straight into the fog. And the air was, indeed, quite chilly.

"Eat this" he said as he handed her something which strongly resembled a green candy.

"What is it for?"

"To prevent excessive sweating"

"... alright then..." she replied as she swallowed it. The taste was rather dull.

"This way" Oberon spoke as he began walking.

Ara followed him as she rubbed her hands over her arms to keep herself a bit warm. She knew already that being pantyless with that outfit felt breezy -she was strongly considering changing clothes again because of that- but with low temperatures like that it was plain uncomfortable. On the bright side, they arrived at their destination really quickly. On the not as bright side, their destination turned out to be a graveyard.

"... for real?" she asked.

Seeing that she was feeling colder than he had expected, Oberon took off his shirt and gave it to her. Ara took it without protests as by that point she knew that he was rather insensitive to both hot and cold. The fog was growing thicker.

"The graves are all fake. As in, I regularly replace the carcasses with new ones. We don't have people buried here" he replied.

"Why do you need to replace them?"

"Because this guest is a carrion eater and feeds on that. This area is designed like a cemetery because its kind easily links such places to food sources"

"... I'm assuming I don't risk getting any kind of weird disease, right?"

"Don't worry, I'd never let something like that happen to you"

Oberon told Ara that she'd been acting strange a few days earlier, but... now she was the one feeling like he was acting a bit weird. That last sentence seemed a bit... off, said by someone like him, even though his voice sounded as calm and composed as ever. Her cheeks were a bit red, but that might just have been because of the general situation and being without the lower half of her underwear while wearing such a dress. Soon after -thankfully as Ara was starting to feel a bit too cold, Oberon's shirt or not- they heard footsteps approaching and a dark, somewhat intermittent red light appeared in the mist, approaching with every stomp. The creature emerged from the fog with slow, heavy steps.

It was standing on its hind legs, but was so heavily hunched forward that the fact that it wasn't using its front legs as well to support its weight seemed unnatural. It wasn't as tall as an horse, but even under its thick, black, curly fur it gave off the impression of being much more muscular. It also seemed like parts of its body shone intermittently underneath the fur. Its head strongly resembled that of a goat, with the main difference being that the mouth was larger. It had six large, ridged, spiral horns, two pointing upwards and back, two going forwards and the last two interwining along the base of the other four. Its hind legs had clogs, but its front ones had feet instead, each with three large, bulky and somewhat short fingers. All four limbs were noticeably brawny, and the fur covering its back was surprisingly long, going from curly to smooth the further it went from its base, almost giving off the impression that it was wearing a cape of some sort.

All things considered, that was a rather intimidating sight, though probably not as much as the pulsing light approaching with heavy steps from the fog had been.

The creature stopped and placed its gaze on Oberon for a brief moment, then moved it to Ara and stared at her for a short while before starting to move forward again, the sound produced by its footsteps making it seem even heavier than it looked, and... bleated? Bellowed? A sort of middle ground. Oberon pretty much ignored it, but Ara seemed to get a bit fazed by that sound. Or rather, it seemed to shock her somewhat, her tails starting to wave behind her. The ram approached her slowly, until its head was right in front of her face.

Its breathing was slow, but the air that came out of its mouth felt hot. Searing almost. And it had an odd smell. Her nostrils were hit by a scent as strong as she'd have expected from a carrion eater, but unlike she'd thought, it didn't stench. Sure, she wouldn't describe it as pleasant, but rather it was... somewhat alluring. Her fur pricked up briefly. The creature then pushed its snout against her face, its skin being surprisingly warm to the touch, and started loudly sniffing her. She was starting to feel kinda... dizzy. And the ram's body seemed to emit a rather noticeable heat, enough to cause her to take off Oberon's shirt.

It then licked her, leaving large droplets of surprisingly sticky drool over the left side of her face. That felt rather unpleasant, and she cleaned it off her eye with an hand. The ram then bleated again, the sound giving Ara goosebumps for some reason. She was feeling light-headed, and surprisingly hot, enough to start sweating. Then she realized that she was running her tongue over the ram's face, the same way it just did with her. She reflexifely pulled back, wondering what had gotten into her. Then the bitter, intense taste left on her tongue struck her, leaving her stunned for a brief moment.

Her head was spinning. And she was cold. Really cold. Freezing, almost. So she stepped forward. The ram was pleasantly warm. The creature, which was already standing on its hind legs, straightened its back, not completely but still enough to tower over her. Or rather, enough for Ara to walk under its upped body, albeith she had to basically get on her knees and bend down to not bump her head against its body. The ram turned its head down and looked at her from above, though from that angle her tails covered her quite a lot. It placed one of its feet over her shoulder, making her feel the roughness of its skin, the weight of the limb and the intense warmth -heat almost- coming from it. She nearly leaned its head against it.

Maybe it was because she was standing under it, but now the creature's smell seemed to be more intense. For a moment she wondered if it was really a nice idea to stay there, but just as she wondered about that the ram bellowed again. Ara's head was sent spinning by that, confusion overtaking her mind. Amidst the dizziness, the creature's scent stung her nostrils with even greater strength. She leaned forward, following the trail of what seemed to be the only unshaking thing in the world at the moment, and moved her fingers inside its fur, finding something stiff. She wrapped her hands around it and slowly pulled it forward, revealing the creature's erect member.

Ara wasn't sure what was happening. Her thought were blurry, she felt like almost everything around her was spinning, and she couldn't quite recall what she was doing there. But there was an entrancing smell coming from right in front of her, from something she was holding. The scent was nice and sweet, which she wondered if the source had an equally pleasant taste. So she started licking it. It had a very rough texture, and against her tongue it felt even hotter than it did against her hands. The taste was nice, but she felt like the more she moved upwards along it the sweeter it got, so she ran her tongue alongside it, until she reached a sensibly smoother area which also seemed to be top of it. Her sight felt nonexistent. She was seeing things, but it was as if her brain couldn't register the informations received by her own eyes. The taste quickly changed, somewhat resembling honey.

... what was she doing again? It had something to do with...

She heard an animal bleat in the distance, and her already frail train of thoughts faded together with the caprine voice. She got closer to that thing offering her both a pleasant taste and scent, and as she did so the warmth irradiating over her body increased. She started licking the head of the object, and soon after an extremely sweet, rather sticky fluid started coming out of it. Was that honey? Was she having a snack? She was somewhat hungry, and started drinking the viscous liquid. She tried to take the whole object in her mouth to not miss a drop, but quickly realized that it was too large for that. She kept running her mouth over the thing, and at one point she realized that there was something moist between her legs. Did she spill some of the honey? She wasn't sure.

Upon noticing that, however, she started feeling a tingling in the same spot. The distant ram bleated again, and Ara turned around, made two or three steps and then got on all fours, raising her rear. She wasn't sure what she was doing or why, but she sort of felt like that was a natural thing to do. That said, moving away from where she was made her feel cold, unpleasantly so. Then something hot touched her butt. She wasn't sure what it was, but it was long and vaguely soft, leaving something over her where it touched her. The thing then ran over her exposed privates, sending a sudden jolt through her body. Her tails stood up from the sudden, unexpected pleasure, as she let out what she'd have sworn was a somewhat loud moan, but for some reason her own voice sounded distant.

Then, what she guessed to be a tongue ran over her again, heavily tracing a line which started almost from her belly button, moved between her legs, proceeded in the middle of her buttocks and stopped at the very base of her back, sending warm shivers along her skin. The same process was repeated again and again, but for some reason Ara was finding it hard to focus on it. She didn't know why, but every time the tongue touched a certain area of her body she felt a wave of pleasure coursing within her. She somehow realized that she was sweating, and that her breathing wasn't too regular.

The pleasure kept piling up, every new jolt feeling more intense than the previous one, warmness slowly spreading from where the tongue touched her all the way to her fingertips, until she felt a sudden, pleasant shock discarching through her whole body, her back arching as her body tensed up, her ears standing up as the pleasure ran within her system. But, as nice as the feeling was, she could tell that something was... missing. Her breathing had gotten even less regular. Her sweating, while it hadn't grown more intense, also hadn't subsided. The tongue parted from her skin, leaving her alone in the cold. Her back went back to a more straight position. Her ears moved back down.

The far away creature bellowed once more, the sound echoing inside her head. She was waiting for something, but she didn't know what that something was. Then, a sound, distant but close. Followed by another. She felt something like hair but warmer and not as smooth running over her body, enveloping her in a blissful, almost violent heat. She smelled the scent from before getting a bit closer. The next thing she felt was something hot, hard and apparently covered in a somewhat sticky substance pushed against her privates. Then, suddenly, the object pushed itself inside of her.

By all accounts, she sould have let out a loud cry, she thought so herself, yet her voice sounded distant. But since that'd make no sense, she probably just didn't moan as strongly as she'd have thought. She was enveloped by the heat, as if she'd just been placed under a warm blanket. Her head was light, her thoughts fleeting.

The thing inside of her was large, to the point of being painful -if just so faintly-, and hot, so much that she wondered if she'd get burns from it. The sheep bleated again from far away, and at the same time the thing inside of her moved back, scraping her inner walls, sending jolts through her body. She didn't really understand what was going on or why she was feeling that way, but all things considered she was feeling... nice. Good even. The foreign object then started moving in the opposite direction, burying itself inside of her again, its rough surface causing surges of pleasure to spread within her system. It kept moving deeper and deeper, its size and shape feeling nice and uncomfortable at the same time, until its head hit her cervix, making her fur stand straight up. It then pulled back, almost enough to slip completely out of her, before moving back inside again, once again enough to scrape the entrance to her womb.

Ara wondered if she'd lost her voice. She was sure she was moaning -... why again?- but she wasn't really hearing much. There was a distinct noise reaching her ears though, and if she had to guess it was coming from where that thing was entering her body. It was a somewhat sloppy sound. Now that she payed attention to it, there was also something running back and forth against her raised butt, in rhythm with the object's motions. Hair? She wasn't sure, but it did feel warm. ... had she noticed that already earlier?

The pleasant feeling kept increasing. Her muscles started to tense up as an hot, somewhat sticky fluid started pouring from the foreign object and getting smeared all over her inner walls by the back and forth motion. Her breathing grew more ragged as the feeling piled up more and more, starting to reverberate thought her body, until it just... started fading. Her limbs relaxed, her fur going back down as the pleasure returned to a lower, albeith still considerable, level.

That was disappointing. She realized that something was missing, and she was sure that said something's absence was the cause of her letdown, but she just couldn't remember what that thing was. Nor what she needed it for. That said, she used the moment to regulate her breath a bit, even though the warmness enveloping her all around was keeping her very dizzy.

The ram bellowed again in the distance.

The fluid being released inside of her seemed to be getting stuck to her insides, as every movement of the foreign object within her was sending more and more pleasure to her nerves, every motion feeling like her inner walls were being pulled and pushed alongside it. Then the thing started pulsating, emanating even more heat. For a moment she got scared of that burning her, but for some reason that thought quickly turned into something different, and she now wondered how long that blissful warmth would last. The pulsations grew even stronger, stretching her insides even more, causing loud, distant moans to escape her mouth.

Then an even hotter fluid suddenly emerged from the object right when it was at its deepest within her. Her voice broke, the sudden stimulation sending jolts all the way to the tip of her tails, her fur standing straight up, her pleasure increasing more and more and more and... then stopping, only to start decreasing slowly, just like before. The burning liquid started pouring out from inside her, and at the same time she felt the thing within her pulling out, scratching every part of her as it did so, eventually coming out of contact with her, aside from a few trails of fluid.

After another disappointed, far away moan, Ara heard a few distant sounds, the warmness which was enveloping her backing away. She got on her knees, turned around and moved forward, following the source of the same scent from before. She quickly found herself again surrounded by heat, and her hands got hold of something covered in a sticky substance.

She was sweating. She'd been sweating since quite a while. So she was thirsty. And the thing between her fingers had a pleasant scent. She started running her tongue all over it, taking frequent but brief pauses to gulp everything down, only to go back to licking it, but every time the fluid moved down her throat she felt her body growing even hotter. Then she found a different kind of drink. It was more dense, much hotter, and had an even stronger smell. She started drinking it up, and once there was none left she started moving her hands up and down alongside that thing, with the faint feeling that she'd get to drink some more if she did so.

With no idea why, her motions really caused more fluid to spill out, and she drank all of that too, the odd taste filling her mouth as her belly grew more and more hot because of all the warm stuff she'd been drinking. At one point she realized that she'd moved an hand over her chest and had started fondling herself, but since she didn't really know why she was doing that, she brought it back around the source of her drink.

She was covered in sweat, but for some reason she wanted to feel more of that warmth. Not on her skin, rather, underneath it. She turned around and tried to guide the almost boiling object she'd been licking inside her, but its height and position made that a particularly difficult task. Eventually, Ara gave up on that, just when another bleat reached her ears. So she got on all fours, her mind feeling rather empty, and as she did so she felt something brushing against her back again. Heat surrounded her once more and the steaming, faintly pulsating object suddenly rammed itself inside of her, leaving her breathless for a couple of seconds.

The staff then started moving back and forth, with much more intensity than before, and Ara wasn't sure if her hips were getting dragged along with it or if she was actually moving by herself. What she did know was that her insides felt almost as if they were on fire, her inner walls getting scratched and pushed with every motion, and even more so when the object started pulsating again, releasing a fluid which by that point almost felt lukewarm in comparison to how hot Ara herself was feeling.

Her voice, which had been letting out uncontrolled moans echoing from some far away place, stopped when a stream of boiling liquid started being released within her, pushing against her cervix, filling every crevice of her insides before starting to drip out. The pleasure had caused her fur to stand on edge, her back arched and her breathing wildly irregular, but just like the previous times, something was lacking, something which would have allowed her to really feel it, to really get over the edge.

Once again, the pleasure started subsiding, leaving her with a strong yet vague sense of disappointment, even though she didn't even know what it was that she was disappointed about. A last gasp escaped her lips when the foreign object parted from her again. The ram bleated again, and Ara suddenly realized how tired she was. Exhausted even, to the point that she just wanted to lie down there and rest. Her clothes were drenched in her own sweat and her insides were burning -figuratively, that is- but the warmness which had been enveloping her body suddenly moved away, accompanied by the sounds of distant steps.

She opened her mouth to say something, she wasn't sure what, but nothing she could hear came out of her lips. Then, something took her by the shoulders, rolled her around so that she was lying on her back and picked her up. Whatever that was, it felt chilling against her skin. But she was too worn out to move away from it. Then... she wasn't sure what happened. If she had to guess, she'd maybe say that she was carried somewhere. To a lake probably, since at one point she was made to sit in a large water body. Something was then rubbed all over her body, which made her realize that at some point she'd been undressed. She felt a small ball being pushed inside her mouth, but it tasted really bitter so she tried to spit it. As she attempted to do so, however, something was placed on her mouth to shut it while her nose got grabbed and pulled up, forcing her to swallow the sphere.

Ara suddenly felt as if she'd just woken up.

"W-wait... what... what happened?" she asked as she blinked repeatedly.

"You did your job"

"Did... I? I remember just... bits and fragments... maybe not even those..."

"Its bleating has a bad effect on the mind. Nothing permanent, don't worry"

"Did it affect you too?"

"I'm a machine, it would be weird if it did have an effect on me"

"... right... wait... why are you... in the bathtub... with... me... na... nak..." she asked, her face growing more and more flushed with every word, her ears standing progressively more on edge, without managing to finish the question.

"You had a strong smell left on you" he replied as he stood up, at which Ara nearly literally slapped her hands over her own face to cover her eyes before seeing anything other than his chest emerging from the wather "And it got on me too while carrying you to the bathroom, so I had to wash myself as well"

"I-I see, that makes sense" she said with an unnecessarily high voice.

Ara heard a few noises which probably were Oberon getting dressed.

"... say" he spoke "Had Sha requested a private exhibition like the one you did during the fair instead of a photo shooting, would you have accepted?"

"... why are you... asking me this? Did he show up again?"

"No, he didn't"

"Is Eve planning something again?"

"No. Nothing I'm aware of, at least"

"Why are you asking me this, then?"

"... I'll go prepare dinner now" he said after a short silence.

"Hey, wa... it... " she said, stopping halfway through her sentence when she heard the door opening and closing.

She opened her eyes -for some reason she hadn't yet done so-, took a deep breath then sank into the water to calm down, emerging a minute or so after. She was feeling kinda tingly, and frustrated, though she couldn't remember why, but when she finally decided to move her hand between her legs, her fingers were met by a cold layer or chaste metal. She groaned loudly, immediatly regretted that, then smelled herself. And started searching for the soap.

* * *

While preparing the meal, Oberon thought about a few different things. Mainly -probably- he was wondering if he should talk with Eve. He was just a servant so he didn't consider it his right to either ignore his mistress's orders or oppose her, but he was also starting to think that she was really getting a bit over the edge with how she was treating Ara. It probably was normal to treat one's friends in a special way, and he knew her and Eve were friends, but making a younger clone of Ara, moving her mind to said clone while putting her real body in hibernation, leaving her in that state for a while to see how the mind reacted to being transfered in such a way then switching her back to her real body and disposing of the clone, all without telling her anything... he had a vague feeling that such a treatment was excessive.

But that wasn't all. Other thoughts had been drifting around his mind since quite a while, thoughts he found confusing and hard to sort. He would almost say they were illogical. He wasn't even sure why he asked Ara those questions in the bathroom.

As those thoughts drifted around in his head, Oberon accidentally cut his finger while cooking.


	21. What Could Go Wrong?

**What Could Go Wrong?**

When Rena walked inside the kitchen, she found Oberon looking at his finger, a single drop of red liquid -not really blood but aesthetically identical- pouring out of a small cut on it. She wouldn't go as far as betting on it, but she was quite sure she'd never seen him mess up something, at least not something so simple, and by the look of it he had clearly cut himself by mistake while making dinner. It was almost... nonsensical, for a machine as advanced as him.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"... nothing"

The elf wasn't exactly convinced by that reply, but she also considered whatever Oberon was going through to not be any of her business. She also had a vague feeling that it had something to do with Ara, and if that really was the case then she'd rather talk about it with her rather than with him. She had noticed that both of them had been acting rather off lately, after all. Well, mainly Ara, but him too. That said, nothing really happened that day.

* * *

Morning came, and breakfast went by uneventfully. Ara went back to her room, wondering if Obe could play chess -she couldn't really remember her work session from the previous day, but it did leave her quite frustrated and she needed something to distract herself since the chastity belt had proven time and time again to be stronger than her-, then someone knocked at her door right as she was pulling him out of his hiding spot.

"O-one moment" she half shouted as she put him back away before walking to the door, where Rena greeted her.

"Mind if I come in?"

"No, not at all"

The elf walked inside the room.

"Did something happen between you and Oberon?" she asked, going straight to the point.

"E-eh?" Ara replied, her tails waving in a somewhat eloquent way behind her.

"I might be wrong, but I think Oberon started acting a bit strange lately" Rena said, to which Ara silently agreed "And... all things considered, I think it has something to do with you"

"T... that's..." Ara started saying while playing with her fingers, her gaze moving around aimlessly, her ears twitching and her tails waving nervously.

"Lister, this situation doesn't really concern me, so just tell me to not think about it and I'll walk away just fine. But if you need, or just want, to talk about it with someone, I'm here. And not for much longer"

Silence followed. Ara was uncertain. She didn't really want to let Rena know about some details of her situation, that was a given... and she wasn't even sure what her "situation" regarding Oberon actually was, but on the other hand, the elf did have much more experience than her in nearly every field, so maybe she could really help her.

"I... I'll think about it" she finally replied, her face red.

"Hey" Rena replied as she placed an hand over her shoulder "Calm down. There's no need to be agitated. ... I mean, there isn't, right? Except for, well, your debt, but that's another story"

"... you're right. Thanks"

Then the elf left her alone with her thoughts. The sun moved along its path in the sky, and eventually lunch and dinner passed by. Ara had spent the day trying to teach Obe how to play chess, and while he did get the basic rules, saying that the two of them could play together would have been basically a lie, since even for a neophyte he was exceptionally bad at the game. Maybe she'd ask Oberon for another match. The next day, as she hadn't brought that up during dinner and didn't feel like going talk to him at such an hour. As for the evening, Ara sort of tried anal masturbation, but gave up halfway through it for a combination of reasons, mainly that it was too embarassing and that she was somewhat frustrated but not that much. That, and she still wasn't sure exactly how to get herself off that way, there was that reason too.

* * *

Night went by, and morning arrived. Ara was rolling around in her bed, more asleep than awake, with her tails tracing amusing arcs in the air, when someone knocked at her door. For a moment she thought about getting up and going to see who it was, but then drowsiness killed off that idea and easily convinced her to keep sleeping. So she did just that. For that reason she didn't hear the further knocks. Since the door wasn't locked, whoever was on the other side decided to simply walk in.

"Ara"

No reply.

"Ara"

Still no reply. Soon after, she was woken up by someone who had grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, not too violently but still enough to get her back from the dreamland.

Startled, Ara looked around in a daze, then her gaze fell on Oberon. Since she had just woken up, her brain took several seconds to understand whether that was actually Oberon or just Obe, seconds during which for some reason she almost started sweating. Then, once the doubt was dissipated, embarassment kicked in and made her blush. Because she'd gone to sleep wearing nothing but her bra. Well, that and the chastity belt. Much to her surprise, however, Oberon turned around upon seeing her cheeks growing redder. She still covered up herself with her tails though.

"Good morning"

"G... good morning... did... something happen... ?" she asked, quite startled.

"There's a letter for you" he replied as he handed her a still sealed envelope, without turning around. That made the gesture look rather... taxing on the muscles. Not that he had any, though.

"For... me? Who sent this? ... does this place really receive mails?"

"I don't know, there was nothing written on it. And yes, we're not cut off from the postal system"

Ara opened the letter and looked at the content. The message was rather simple, almost threateningly so.

"What does it say?" he asked, still facing the other way.

"... "I'm on my way", nothing else... but I think I recognize this handwriting. This is from... Eun... probably"

A brief silence followed, interrupted only by a rather unrelated statement.

"Breakfast is ready"

"R-right, give me just a moment"

After that he walked away, closing the door behind him. Ara stared at the letter for a minute or so. It'd been a rather long while since she last saw Eun, and the thought of meeting her again wasn't bad at all -not in itself- but considering her current situation...

Thinking too much about that woudn't help her. Besides, she didn't even know when she'd arrive. It might be that day just like it might be the next month. So she decided to just go down and eat something. Though she stopped on the stairs and turned back, since she'd forgotten to get dressed, her mind busy with other thoughts.

"So, who was that from?" Rena asked her when she finally reached her seat at the table.

"Eun. Seems like she's coming here, though she said nothing about when that would happen"

"Oh, that... might be a problem..." she replied.

"Why?" Oberon inquired.

"Eun is... how should I put this... I get the feeling she wouldn't really accept my current situation..." Ara answered.

_It's still better than my brother finding it out at least..._

"... I can work today" she then added "She didn't say when she'd arrive, so maybe I can actually finish paying off the debt before then, in which case I wouldn't have to tell her anything about it. ... I... guess..."

Oberon remained silent for an odd while. A sudden thought crossed his mind, one which was partially unrelated to the current conversation. He stored that idea -if it could be called such- somewhere in his artificial brain before answering.

"... sure"

"With... what, then?"

Another brief silence.

"There is a guest aviable, but it's mating is noticeably drawn out, so..."

"Oh, that one..." the elf commented.

"... so, it would be a rather long session. You would skip either lunch or dinner, depending on when you want to start. Possibly both"

Ara thought about it for quite a while. She had already gone through a lot there, so a part of her believed that she could handle whatever else that place still had to throw at her.

"And... would it pay... well... nice... ? I mean, for... my... debt... you... know..." she asked then, her tails dropping lower and lower to the floor as the question turned out to embarrass her more than she had thought it would.

"It would" he simply replied.

"Ara" Rena spoke up "I... wouldn't really advise it. It might last up to twelve hours"

"T-twelve?!"

"Yes"

"It would be worth around six hundred thousands"

"That much?!"

The elf basically glared at Oberon. For just a second but still.

"Ara, seriously, I don't think you can handle something like that"

"I believe she can" he said, an extremely vague shade of something different from his usual composure echoing in his voice.

Rena turned around.

"Just shut up for a moment" she told him before turning back towards Ara "Listen, I get it that you've already had some... rough experiences here, but we're talking about more than twice the usual duration, without breaks. Even if we assume that your current state enhances your stamina and everything else, this would still be too much"

Ara's mind was currently in the middle of a storm. Twelve hours were, indeed, a long time. A really, really long time. And while doing that would pretty much cut what was left of her debt in half, she really didn't feel too confident about doing it. That said, there was something else creeping deeper underneath her thoughts, something which was emerging bit by bit.

That was curiosity. She'd had experiences with quite the variety of partners during her days there, so she couldn't help but wonder how such a long session would feel. She kicked that thought away once it got too close to the surface, but it came back, again and again, getting more and more alluring.

"I... I'll do it" she said then. On her face was an uneasy smile that could easily be interpreted in several different ways.

"I'll be there too, then" Rena said.

"Eh?"

"I want to be sure that nothing goes wrong... although I think it did already"

"A-are you sure? I mean, you already have your work to do, and Oberon can..."

"I said I'll be there" the elf repeated.

"I'm against it" Oberon said, his gaze still locked on his book. ... when did he pull it out?

The two women turned towards him.

"This guest is rather irascible and could easily turn violent if irritated. If we consider that its perception of things may get a bit... distorted while mating, there's the risk of it becoming overly aggressive if it were to notice the presence of others"

"I'm well aware of that, and I know how to stay hidden"

"It would still be an unnecessary risk"

"R-Rena, really, don't worry. I'll be fine... I hope..." Ara interrupted them. She wasn't sure she could stand being watched by Rena while doing that. The thought itself was turning her cheeks red and making her heart beat faster. Well, it actually already happened once, but that was a different matter.

The elf remained silent for a minute or so before replying.

"... if that's what you want, I'll go with it" she said then, though she clearly wasn't too convinced.

"Thanks"

"We can go as soon as you finish eating, if you want" Oberon said.

"S-sure..."

After that, breakfast ended silently. He told Ara to wait for him in the elevator since he had to pick up a couple of things, and when he arrived the two of them went to the lower floors.

"What do you plan on doing after this?" he suddenly asked as the elevator moved along its path.

"You mean... after having paid off the debt?"

"Yes"

"I guess I'll start looking for a job again. ... a more normal one, possibly..."

"I've heard from the mistress that you have trouble keeping one because of your tendency to oversleep"

"That's... true..." she replied, her ears bending downwards upon hearing the harsh truth.

Oberon opened his mouth to say something, but stopped before making any sound. He remained like that for a second or two, then closed his lips. But since Ara was looking down, she didn't notice it. Soon after, the door opened and they stepped into the sixth floor, then headed to the fourth door. The antechamber had both feathers and scales hanging from the walls. She realized that she had completely forgotten to ask him exactly what was inside that dome, but just as she was about to inquire him about that he handed her the key and something else. A sort of candy.

"... I've just had breakfast" she commented.

"This should help you get through the whole session without going hungry. ... it's not a muffin. It's more of a dietary supplement of sort, I believe they're called that. Though I ignore why it was shaped like this" he added when she gave him a doubtful look. He had skipped the details, but in short that was to avoid having Ara getting hungry or thirsty in the middle of the session. Technically, it should have a positive effect on her stamina too.

"Well, it's not the weirdest thing I've heard since getting here I guess" she repleid as she took it.

She ate the fake muffin, which was surprisingly dry and almost disgustingly sweet, to the point that she'd have gone back up to get some water to wash the taste off her mouth had Oberon not brought a drink along as well. Then she asked him to turn around while she took off the chastity belt.

"Do you still use the plug?" he suddenly asked as he took the key back.

Ara's mind jumped on her own to certain memories related to that object. Her body nearly jumped too.

"K-kind of, yes" she replied, her gaze drifting closer to the ground than to his face "Why do you a-ask?"

"I was... ... ... it doesn't matter"

Ara decided to not inquire any further, as she already had something else to think about at the moment. And so the two of them stepped through the door. The inside of the dome was made of a quite thick forest of tall trees, though individually they weren't too large. That, and the place was waterlogged. They were both with their whole feet below the water. Thankfully -and somewhat oddly- the water wasn't cold, it was somewhat warm actually, though the ground underneath felt quite muddy and was uncomfortable to walk on. Ara shrugged it off as she started following Oberon, though they walked quite a lot less than usual before he stopped. A distinct sound could be heard coming from... somewhere around them. The place seemed to make noises echo all around, and because of that telling exactly where that was coming from was quite hard. Oberon put some distance between himself and her -not that much though- and leaned against a tree. Soon after, the source of the sound revealed itself.

The creature emerged from behind a tree. Slithering in front of her was a sort of mixture between three or so different animals. From the waist down it was a snake, slightly too large for Ara to be able to hug it and covered in dark blue scales, while the upper part of its body could be described as an humanoid thorax. Though it had six arms, and each hand had only three fingers, albeith rather large. Its head resembled both that of a snake and a bird -it had no beak however-, and was mostly covered in feathers. Actually, most of the upper half of its body was covered in feathers, which seemed really odd. Its hands were still scaly though, and both its palms and its chest were mostly naked, leaving the pale skin exposed. The creature opened its jaws, showing off its forked tongue as it croaked at her, confusing her even more about just what exactly it was.

"Stand still" Oberon said.

"The tails too?"

"... if possible. Just until it starts"

Holding her six tails in place turned out to be harder than she had expected, but she managed still to do so. The creature slowly moved forward, rippling the water with every motion of its serpentine body. Ara realized that it was larger than she had initially thought as it kept creeping closer. And while she couldn't really tell how they looked beneath the feathers, she got the feeling that those arms were really muscular. The creature started moving in circles around her, slowly, staying at an arm's length -one of its arms, not Ara's- while inspecting her with its gaze. She followed it with her eyes as much as possible without actually turning around, and avoiding looking at its face as that might have upset it.

Then something closed around two of her tails, something warm and moist. She nearly shrieked in surprise as she turned around to see that the creature had bit her tails, albeith with very little strength. And either it lacked teeth or they weren't touching her fur at the moment. That said, she wasn't sure what to do, especially after her soon-to-be partner locked its gaze on her face. Soon after it let go of her tails and slithered even closer to her, to the point its face was nearly touching Ara's. She suppressed an odd hurge to smell it just as the feathered animal opened its mouth and started running its long, thin, forked tongue over her cheeks. It felt... surprisingly dry. Then the tongue suddenly slid inside her mouth and ran around inside it for a short while before coiling around hers.

She instinctively raised her arms and tried to back away at the same time, but the creature immediatly grabbed her wrists and shoulders, preventing her from doing either of those actions. Then the tongue dove down her throat, causing Ara to get a sudden but intense urge to retch. She somehow managed to resist the impulse as the tongue started moving back up, and once it left her mouth she saw that it was coiled around... was that... a piece of the brioche she ate for breakfast? The creature quickly retracted its mouth and swallowed it, then lifted her up and started examining her from up close while apparently savoring the stolen food. Its grip was firm, but the palm of its hands felt surprisingly smooth against her wrists and shoulders.

The way he handed her, on the other hand, couldn't exactly be described as gentle. Its two free hands ran all over her face, with its fingers even going inside her mouth and scratching her ears, giving her mixed feelings. It then moved down along her neck and followed her shoulders and arms, reaching all the way to her fingertips. It seemed somewhat interested in her gloves, but either its interest died down really quickly or she had gotten the wrong impression as its free hands quickly moved back to her shoulders. It grabbed the fur boa and pulled it, forcibly removing it from its hooks and smelled it for a short while before biting it and finally letting it fall in the water. Finding it later might turn out to be an hard task. Then its hands ran down along her body, but stopped the very moment they touched her dress. Maybe because it was less... form fitting than her gloves, it tried to shove a finger between it and her skin, which actually ripped the dress a bit. Upon seeing that, the creature suddenly tore it completely down, leaving her completely naked except for her gloves, sock, shoes and well, the collar. Which, depending on how one were to see it, wasn't actually "completely naked" at all.

"H-hey!" she nearly shouted as she tried to move around, her already somewhat flushed face turning bright red.

In response, the creature twisted its head around and opened its large mouth only to close it on Ara's face, covering it from the lips all the way to the base of her neck, thankfully leaving her nose out. The inside of its mouth felt much wetter than she had expected, as if it was salivating profusely. And as relieved as she was to not be feeling any teeth against her flesh, being held in its mouth like that was still quite unsettling. Then she felt when the creature closing its free hands over her bare breasts, only to start groping them, eventually focusing on her nipples, causing her tails to start waving. Then she felt its tongue slide against hers and, mere moments later, wrap itself around one of her ears before beginning to lick the inside of it. Just how long was that?

Her mouth was essentially shut at the moment so she couldn't voice any complaints -not that the creature would have listened anyway, probably- but that sent strong shivers along her spine, in contrast to the warmness which was spreading from her chest as the creature kept playing with it. While it wasn't really an erogenous area, the inside of her fox ears was really sensitive, and having it licked that freely felt... odd. Not really pleasant, but surprisingly stimulating. Ticklish, maybe?

Then she felt a finger move away from her breasts and trace a line along her body, stopping for a few seconds over her belly button, almost tickling her as it rubbed against it before continuing down, reaching her privates. Feeling its scales against it made her realize that she was indeed wet, and she nearly thanked the creature for preventing her from letting her voice out when it suddenly pushed one of its large fingers all the way inside her, sending a jolt along her body.

Soon after the feathered snake pulled its mouth away, its tongue quickly sliding back away from her, and placed its face in front of her entrance, making her blush even more. It ignored her when she told it to not stare at her like that, and instead forced her in a leaning position to get a better view as it rolled its tongue back inside its mouth, two of its arms going from her shoulders to her hips to better hold her in place . She focused on not moaning when the creature started moving its finger around almost violently, sending waves of pleasure throught her system coupled with a certain degree of pain caused by its lack of ... tact, and Ara failed to contain a moan when its tongue suddenly coiled around her clit, completely covering it as it rubbed against its surface.

Ara felt the pleasure build up as the snake's hands held her hips in place, her tails starting to move around more and more as if to compensate for that, until she felt a second finger being pushed inside her. Considering their size, the feeling was comparable to that of around six or seven normal fingers, but those two were also longer and reached deeper within her. On top of that, their scales scratched all over her inner walls. As the stimulation kept piling up, she started digging her nails in her own palms as a wave of pleasure started to surge both from within and from outside. Namely, from her clit, which was still being rubbed all over by the tongue.

Having momentarily forgotten to keep her voice down, Ara let out a relatively quiet but rather long moan which grew louder as the feeling of her first orgasm spreaded through her body, arching her back and making her fur and ears stand on edge as she felt herself clamp down on the creature's fingers. Her partner seemed to have stopped moving when she reached her orgasm, maybe because it wasn't sure what was making her act that way, but just as her voice died down and she started regulating her breath a bit the creature pulled its fingers out, sending another jolt through her body as it licked Ara's juices off its scales. And maybe he liked the taste, as the next thing it did was sliding its tongue inside of her.

Without uncoiling it from her clit though. Ara closed her eyes -wether to focus on holding her voice back or on the feeling, it was hard to tell- as a different kind of stimulus pervaved her. The creature grabbed her with its last two arms as well, which did result in an overall more comfortable position for her at least. She wondered once more just how long that tongue was as it kept sliding inside of her, creeping against her inner walls as if it wanted to completely cover them. Truth be told, the stimulation coming from that wasn't particularly intense, even though it was literally covering every nook and cranny of her insides, but the same didn't apply for the outer one: as the tongue kept creeping inside of her, in fact, it also kept sliding against her whole clit, and that did feel intense.

She started biting her lips, her tails tracing lines in the water below her as they kept waving more and more wildly, especially after the creature grabbed her legs to hold them in place once she started trashing around a bit. She felt herself getting closer and closer to the edge, the pleasure spreading through her whole body as the tongue kept creeping in deeper and deeper, until a jolt of pain abruptly traveled through her nerves, the suddenness of it preventing her from holding in a relatively loud scream. And while Ara did need some pain to really reach her climax, that was too much and too unexpected. As for what exactly happened, the creature apparently decided to shove two fingers inside her rear, both at once.

She had already had anal intercourse before, but having something that large pushed all the way in with literally no preparations was just painful. To make things worse, the pleasure she was feeling dissipated almost completely because of that. On the bright side, however, the creature stopped moving for one reason or another, giving her some time to recover. A minute or so later, however, the snake took its fingers out and brought her back up to stare at her blushing face, albeith for a few moments at most, before suddenly pushing her down, against its own waist.

Ara let out a moan and a scream at the same time as the creature's two members -which she actually hadn't even seen as she had focused on its head for some reason- penetrated her both at once. She felt her hips hitting against its feathers, though she could also feel its scales beneath them. Her legs were pushed apart by its serpentine body as she got pulled down on it. Ara's main entrance was, by that point, wet enough to easily allow penetration, and while both the size and lenght were a bit too much for her to describe them as comfortable, she still felt a jolt of pleasure run through her nerves when the creature entered her. Her rear, however, had loosened up only a little, so the sudden, complete insertion felt just like that of the two large fingers from before if not even worse, the pain caused by that doing too good of a job neutering the pleasure.

She tried to push herself up, more by reflex than by actual choice, but the snake was firmly grasping her wrists and pulling them down, while her feet couldn't find any footing in that situation. After mere seconds, the snake moved two of its six hands over her buttocks and, grabbing them, pulled her up itself, sending both pleasure and pain coarsing through her. She bit her lips to hold her voice in as she snake raised her, almost enough for its two members to slip out of her, only to slam her back down again, almost violently. She bit her lips to try keeping her voice down as the creature slowly speeded up the pace, the sound of her flesh against its scales and feathers resonating within her ears.

A normal person would've gotten injured from that kind of anal penetration, but that wasn't the first time Ara's particular condition allowed her to withstand a rather overly rough treatment. For a split second she wondered if Oberon was aware of that, but then her mind was brought back to the pain given by every motion of the creature's member in her rear. Since it was no longer holding her wrists, having instead brought its other four hands over her hips and ankles, Ara tried to put up some resistance, or at least slow down its pace a bit, but the difference in sheer strength made her effort mostly pointless. Not that she could manage to put much force into her arms anyway at the moment.

That said, the pain was starting to fade, albeith rather slowly. Wether that was because her rear was getting used to the size or because the pleasure was simply building up enough to cover the pain, she wasn't exactly sure. Then the snake moved an hand over her mouth and forced it open right before sliding its tongue inside. She could taste her own juices still partially covering it, something which made her face turn even redder, her ears twitching a couple of times as the creature coiled again its tongue around hers. Then she felt its large fingers against her breasts, roughly fondling her and occasionally pinching her nipples with a little too much strength, sending opposite stimulus down her system.

They remained there like that, repating the same motions, for a good while. Had it not been for the uncomfortableness and -now only slightly- excessive pain, Ara would have already reached her climax, but as both those feelings gradually decreased, she could feel the orgasm getting closer, her inner walls pushing against the creature's members with increasing strength as the pleasure built up more and more, two of her tails unconsciously wrapping themselves around the snake's lower body as Ara tried to bite her lips to keep her voice in, to no avail as the creature was still holding her mouth open. Her tongue was still wrapped by the creature's, preventing her from moving her head as well, and eventually her limbs tensed up, her back arching as the wave of pleasure ran through her body. The pain had subsided, but not to the point that she had to hurt herself to get off, enhanching the feeling which was coarsing through her, her fur and ears standing straight up, her breathing coming to an alt for a couple of seconds before resuming, although ragged and somewhat broken.

The snake, too, stopped moving, as if curious, and stared at Ara for a few moments before raising her up, more than enough to pull itself out of her, and closing its large mouth on her crotch, covering her belly as well, some of her tails ending up partially within its jaws too. A chill ran down her spine as she felt what most likely were its teeth poking against her skin -where were them before, she didn't really want to know-, but it didnt' seem to be applying any pressure. It was quite disturbing in a way, but neither painful nor harmful. For now, at least.

She shrieked a bit when she felt the tips of its tongue bumping against her clit once again before beginning to lick her thighs, as if to clean them of the fluids which had dripped down along them. Ara took the chance to regulate her breath, or at least that was the plan, but doing so became quite difficult once the tongue entered her and started running around wildly within her for the second time, sending weak but numerous waves of pleasure along her system. Meanwhile, the creature was moving its hands around a bit, apparently to get a better grip on Ara, when its fingers suddenly ran right over the base of her tails.

That was already a sensitive area for her, especially because it didn't get much... attention usually, and since she hadn't seen it coming -both literally and figuratively- the jolt of pleasure that hit her felt even more intense than usual, enough to make her have a brief spasm, which incidentally made her also involuntarily push her own flesh against the creature's teeth.

The snake seemed intrigued by her reaction and opened its mouth, pulling her out. It turned her around to look at her back, closed three fingers around her wrists, holding them up above her head, two hands around her chest and waist to have a more proper grasp, then took her tails in its fourth hand, pulling them to the side in order to get a better view of the point where they connected to her body.

Being treated like some sort of toy was already embarassing, but for some reason Ara found being stared at from behind like that even worse to deal with, especially because her tails were being held and she couldn't even try to cover herself up a bit with them. On the bright side, there weren't any teeth marks visible on her skin. Then the snake started stroking her lower back, around the base of her tails, as well as their bases themselves.

Her face turned even redder as the pleasant feeling -mixed in with a not so faintly ticklish one- dripped into her mind. And as much as the feeling wasn't spreading through her whole body, remaining instead focused in that area, it still caused her to squirm around, which seemed to be amusing for the creature. For Ara, on the other part, it was highly embarassing at first. And frustrating after some minutes. Mainly because, as nice as that felt, she really couldn't get off from that. A different kind of tingling began bothering her, this time between her legs, as the creature kept playing with the base of her tails. Somehow, however, she still managed to keep her voice down.

Oberon, on his part was still keeping watch, though his mind was partially elsewhere. It hadn't been that long since Ara started, especially considering the expected length of that session. And while he was no expert about that subject, he was quite sure that the guest was almost done with what could probably be considered its foreplay. Though maybe that term wasn't really appropriate, considering how there had already been penetration.


	22. It Stings

**It Stings**

Oberon's focus, which had left Ara for a split second, went back to her as he told himself that his other thoughts could wait. At the moment, what he had to do was make sure nothing bad happened to her during work hours.

As for Ara herself, she didnt' seem to be doing bad. Her partner had spent the last while with its mouth closed around her crotch, most likely savoring her insides with its tongue, and at one point Ara had started to fondle her breasts herself, albeith somewhat timidly. Then the snake moved its hands around again, grabbing her by the hips and ankles and lifting her up once more. Truth be told, Ara's feet had yet to touch the water again since the creature first pulled her up. He turned her around to face her back, put her in position and then pushed her down with a single, almost fierce motion, her thighs hitting against its scales as its whole lengths penetrated her again. Ara's voice broke for a second, and for a moment Oberon wondered if she was alright, but by taking a better look at her, she seemed to be fine. Well, relatively. That, and the collar wasn't sending any alarm either. He didn't rely entirely on that to check if she needed help nor not, but an additional safety measure couldn't hurt.

She was expecting to be pulled back up again but, unlike before, the creature moved its own hips back before slamming itself against her. Ara felt like some of the air in her lungs got pushed out, the violent motion forcefully sending a wave of pleasure inside of her. For one reason or another, her rear was feeling almost no pain this time, and instead contributed to the pleasure. She barely managed to breathe in some oxigen before her partner pulled out, only to quickly push itself back inside of her again, her body being assaulted by a second wave of delight. To make things even more intense, the creature was holding her in such a way that one of its fingers was resting right over her clit, its scales rubbing against her with every thrust, making the stimulation even stronger.

The same, simple motion of the creature's waist repeated over and over, Ara's voice resounding through the forest, louder and louder as her climax approached. The coldness of the scales hitting against her flesh was getting covered by her own warmness, her fluids dripping over her partner's body and on the water beneath them both. Her body began to tremble as she arched her back, her fingernails digging into her palms as the creature's members brought her to her orgasm, pleasure spreading from deep within her all the way to the tip of her fur, her voice dying down as her lungs stopped working for a split second.

But her partner didn't seem satisfied. It stopped for merely a moment, barely enough for her to take a short breath, before resuming his motion. Ara instinctively pushed her hands against his arms, in a vain attempt to put some distance between them and take a brief break, but the snake didn't even seem to notice. Instead, it sent its tongue to run against the base of her tails. Took by surprise, Ara's body convulsed for a brief moment, the pleasure increasing as she felt her inner walls clamp down harder on the snake's members in response to the sudden stimulation.

That seemed to please the creature, as it emitted a loud croak before speeding up its thrusts, ignoring Ara's protests. Unsure herself on how exactly she was still managing to take air into her lungs, all she could do in that situation was drown in the feeling. Still sensitive from her previous climax, but with no pause inbetween, the stimulations kept assaulting her body, threatening to send her nerves into overload. Her nails dug into her own flesh again, more by reflex than out of conscious choice, as another orgasm quickly approached, shaking her every muscle, the overbearing feeling emptying her mind for a few, extremely long seconds.

But the creature still wasn't satisfied, and kept forcing itself back and forth within her. Ara's mind went blank for a minute or so as another feeling reached her brain, one different from simple pleasure, something which felt less intense, and yet warmer, closer. As she came back to her senses, Ara could feel her newly grown tail, the seventh, waving toghether with the others, as if it'd always been there. Her tongue instinctively ran along her teeth, as if to better grasp the shape of her now elongated fangs. Some of her sweath got caught in the thin layer of fur which had grown on the back of her hands.

Her heart was beating slower than before. For a mere second, everything felt distant, even the incessant motion which mercilessy sent pleasure through her body. That second seemed to be unreasonably long, and even as it approached its end, Ara felt like she was... fine. Nice, even. Her partner probably noticed something had changed in her -that, or the sudden growth of another tail startled it- since it froze for a moment, and even when it started moving again it did so at a slower pace. That annoyed her. Just like the fact that its fingers had moved around a bit, leaving her clit alone. She had her back facing the creature, so she ran two of her tails over its jaw since she couldn't reach there with her hands, urging the feathered snake to continue as she turned her face toward its, her gaze resting upon its eyes.

Somehow, that worked. The reptile sped up again, going even faster than before, even starting to let out some croaks. Ara, on the other hand, was surprisingly silent, at least compared to before. She was feeling just as much pleasure as before -well, almost- but now she was... in control, maybe? She was relishing the feeling, greatly even, but she wasn't getting overwhelmed. Her breathing wasn't exactly steady, actually, it was definitively ragged, but it also was far from broken.

For how long exactly they kept up that single, repetitive motion, Ara wasn't sure. Her body tensed up two or three more times, with either her fangs or her claws -claws?- digging into her own skin and flesh whenever necessary, to allow her to truly savor her orgasms, a few drops of her own blood running down her body from where she pierced her own skin. But that was getting a tad boring for her.

She wasn't sure herself how, but she managed to communicate with her partner. She really hadn't expected it to understand any of her words, but that's exactly what seemed to happen. The creature, albeith somewhat reluctantly, slithered closer to a tree, resting its back against it. Then Ara pushed herself up, holding on to its arms to lift herself, turned around and inserted the creature's members inside her body again, slowly, savoring the feeling, and making sure they were hitting different spots compared to before. Then she started to grind herself against the creature, rubbing her inner walls with her partner's flesh. The stimulation, albeith weaker, was different enough from before to actually feel more intense, if only because of its novelty.

She let out weak moans as she kept moving her hips back and forth, brief jolts running up her back whenever one of her sweet spots was striken, and not long after she changed her position a bit, managing to get on her knees, standing over the serpentine body, and began bringing her hips up and down along its length. Her footing wasn't exactly great, and the scales weren't too comfortable either, but she just felt like doing the moving, even though she couldn't quite move the way she wanted. Then, since her hands were free, she decided to fondle her own chest to add a little something else to the stimulation.

That lasted for a while, but not a really long one, as the feathered snake apparently wasn't satisfied with that stimulation. With a loud croak, it grabbed Ara with four hands and pushed her all the way down its length, the sudden stimulation forcing her voice out of her lungs, if only for a moment. It then pulled her up, to the point the tips of its members were just barely within her, only to slam her down against its body again, and again, and again.

"How... mmnh... rude..." Ara commented, her cheecks red, her lips twisted into a soft, and actually rather annoyed, smile.

Her ears twitched at every thrust, her tails waving behind her, and while she could definitively feel pleasure piling up within her, something was... not quite right. She wasn't sure why, but for some reason she felt like she'd hardly get to another climax during that session. For a brief moment she wondered why she didn't find such a thought embarassing, but then went to think of other things. Was that because she had already come a few times? ... no, that probably wasn't it. She though about it in a surprisingly calm way, taking a break every now and then to simply enjoy the rough treatment she was receiving, and eventually she came to the conclusion that the snake simply wasn't that good of a partner. After all, ever since they actually started mating, it did nothing but repeat the same, single motion over and over, with little to no variation. That got boring rather quickly, relatively speaking at least. He did provide quite a nice foreplay, but once they got down to it, the creature seemed to just forget about her and think only about its own pleasure.

... or was she the one who had gotten more demanding? She brought one of her tails close to her face and ran an hand over it -the gesture looked rather awkward since she was constantly being moved up and down- and wondered. She had a faint feeling that her personality changed a bit when she had too many tails. A feeling or maybe a vague memory. ... no, that was probably just her mind playing a trick on her. After all, her other partners there at the menagerie never disappointed her in such a way, so the problem had to be that particular guest.

Then a sudden, intense surge of pleasure shook her body. As her mind was forcefully brought back to her current situation, Ara realized that her partner's members had started throbbing, and because of that it began moving even faster. Or maybe it was the other way around, she hadn't paid much attention to it.

Now, however, she was focusing on the hot flesh pulsating within her, her fangs resting on her own lips, the sudden prospect of a climax exciting her. The creature started to croak quickly, its voice getting louder and louder as Ara began to feel its seed releasing within her. It was... surprisingly cold, at least compared to what she had expected. The amount wasn't bad, at least. That said, her fangs parted from her lips with disappointment, her climax still well out of reach.

On top of that, as soon as the feathered snake was done releasing its seed, it pulled Ara up, then simply let her fall on the water and... went away. She was left speechless.

"... I'm never coming back to this dome" she commented a minute or so later as she got back up.

The water felt colder than she remembered it to be. As she looked around, she realized that the sun had set already. The moon, however, was full, the forest wasn't too thick, and the water acted as a mirror, those factor working together to provide a relatively nice illumination despite it being night already. She did feel quite hungry, now that she noticed, and rather tired too. But still, that was beyond disappointing, especially because the session started out rather nicely, and with rather good expectations as well. She stretched her arms and legs -her tails too-, her ears standing up briefly before relaxing. She then heard someone approaching, and turned to see Oberon walking up to her.

For some reason, the memory of her dress getting completely torn off came back to her, making her fully aware of being naked, which caused her to move her tails in front of her to cover her exposed skin. The two of them stared at each other for a brief second... minute... a while... or was that actually just a second? Then he spoke.

"Do you want this?" he asked as he unbuttoned his shirt a little. He hadn't really expected the guest to destroy her clothes like that, so he hand't brought anything she could use to cover herself. A stupid blunder, or at least so he believed.

"... sure" she replied, and shortly after put on his shirt.

It was rather large, since Oberon was quite a bit taller than her, and because of that it covered her nether regions too. Somewhat, at least.

Ara was confused. She had been naked for the past several hours just fine, and suddenly getting flustered over it didn't really make sense to her. It's not like he hadn't been looking the whole time either.

They went back, him walking in front of her, and as they walked Ara's gaze was fixed on his back. Was that the first time she had seen him shirtless? He sure had a nice body. His skin was rather pale, and his muscles, while clearly developed, weren't excessively large like those of a bodybuilder. Well, he had probably been built that way in the first place, so it's not like he had to train to get that look or anything, but still, a great back was a great back. She tried to smell his shirt, but there wasn't really any scent on it. Not that it really surprised her. They reached the antechamber, and Oberon turned around. Ara's gaze rested on his abdominals for a brief moment before moving to his face.

"Here" he said as he handed her the chastity belt.

 _... right_ she thought.

She had kind of forgotten about that, but wearing that thing was written in her contract. Or something like that. She didn't really feel like it though. She could still use some fun before putting that back on. She stared at Oberon, but for some reason asking him what she had just thought of was surprisingly hard. And yet, telling the snake what to do had been easy, even though it shouldn't have been any less embarassing. Well, the snake kind of did whatever it wanted anyway in the end, but that was a different matter altogether.

"... Ara?" he asked after a good minute or two of them standing there, doing nothing.

"... can you... put it on for me?" she asked then.

 _... no, wait, that's wrong_ she thought as she realized that she had asked the wrong thing. ... was she blushing?

Oberon tilted his head to the side a bit. He thought Ara had started acting weird after she had grown another tail -it wasn't the first time he noticed a change in her behaviour after the appearance of a new tail- but the way she reacted when he walked up to her once the session was over made him think she'd gone back to normal. What she just asked, however, changed his mind.

"... are you sure?"

"Would doing that be a problem?"

"No. No, it wouldn't" Oberon said. Wether to her or to himself, he wasn't too sure.

Ara opened her -well, his- shirt, which simply required her to pull it to the sides since she hadn't buttoned it up when he gave it to her, she simply held it close with her hands. At the same time she moved her tails behind her back. While she was far from soaked, Ara's skin was still wet from her fall in the water, and drops were falling on the floor from her skin, her hair and, mostly, from the fur covering her tails.

Oberon wondered if he'd have reflexively gulped down some saliva, had saliva been something his body produced automatically rather than on demand. The sight in front of him was alluring, that's something he gave up trying to deny. For some odd reason, however, the actual word which came to his mind was "tainting", not "alluring". If there was something he would point out about what he was seeing, that'd be that his white shirt really didn't go that well together with Ara's white hair and fur, especially because she was wearing black gloves and a black thighhigh. Had she had her normal, black hair, the sight would have been more pleasant to his eyes. But that was probably nitpicking.

_... what am I thinking... ?_

Oberon forcefully pulled his own mind back to what was happening rather than what he was seeing or what his opinions about it were. He walked up to Ara, maybe somewhat slowly, and got down in front of her. On one knee to still keep some distance, as getting down on both might have placed his face a bit too close to her. The feathered snake's seed was slowly dripping out of her, tracing a few lines down her thighs. Some of those had nearly reached her ankles, but the fluid was rather viscous. Mixed with it were her own juices. The scents hit his nostrils, but he apparently ignored them.

The room was dead silent, which made it easy for Ara to hear her own heartbeats. She was confused. At first she wondered why she acted shy in front of Oberon, but then a different question popped up in her mind. Why didn't she feel embarassed for most of the session? Which one of the two was the odd behaviour? She felt a bit dizzy. The cold steel then touched her skin, sending a brief, very faint shiver up her spine, her tails wavering ever so slightly. The chastity belt moved up along her legs, quickly reaching her waist, and then the familiar sound of the lock closing filled her ears. She felt a little sting when the belt closed around her waist, too. Oberon got up, still in front of her. Their eyes met, and Ara pulled one side of the shirt further to the side, almost without thinking, further revealing her breasts, exposing one of her nipples.

Silence. A brief, loud silence filled the room, soon interrupted by his voice.

"I'll get you something to wipe yourself before heading back up. I'd rather not leave drops of that around" Oberon said before turning around and leaving the room.

Ara let herself fall on the closest thing she found, which happened to be a chair. She was... calm now. Confused, but calm. What was she doing? Contrasting, or rather, opposite thoughts and feelings quickly replaced each other in her mind one after the other. What she did didn't even make sense. Not in that order at least, since the chastity belt had already been locked when she did that. Well, it's not like the key was out of reach, but at that point why not just act before? She sighed, then brought her tails over her lap. She had a vague feeling that her confusion was coming from those. She had a feeling that she acted a bit different from usual when too many tails were out, but... she also had the complete opposite feeling of them not affecting her in the slightest. Which one was wrong?

... she could try to get rid of them. If they really were affecting her mind, then making them disappear would make her realize that. And if they weren't, then their absence would change nothing, which meant it wouldn't be a loss either. Or so she guessed. Then again, she wasn't really sure how to do that in the first place. But she could at least try. It's not like she had something to lose. ... or she could just not bother. She was probably overthinking it. As disappointing as it turned out to be, she did just finish a work session more than fifteen hours long. She was just more tired than she realized. That had to be it.

_... wait, what drops was he talking about?_

She looked at her feet and saw that the snake's seed had ran down her legs and reached the floor. The belt was sort of keeping it in now, but some had flown out beforehand. Well, it didn't really matter, though thinking about it, even the amount it released was actually underwhelming. Considering the size of the one it came from, at least.

Then Oberon walked back in and gave her a couple of towels. She was quite sure that her cheeks had turned a bit red again, though once more she wasn't sure why his presence affected her that way. She wiped herself up with one, dried her body a bit with the other, then they walked to the elevator.

"I'll go take a bath" Ara said once they arrived to the ground floor, and left.

She had just entered the room upstairs, however, when someone knocked at the door.

"Come in"

And Oberon walked in.

"My shirt" he said.

"... it's wet" she replied.

It was true. But it wasn't that wet. And considering the time of the year they were in, it'd probably dry up soon even if he were to simply keep it on. ... or maybe not, since his body was actually quite cold.

"... right. I'll get another one. Dinner will be ready by the time you're finished"

"... nice"

And so Oberon walked out, closed the door behind him, and... stood still, his back basically resting against it. Then he took a small glass bottle out of his pocket. He brought it to his nose and pulled up the stopper, just barely enough to let the scent escape from inside. Back when they... self-produced some soap, Oberon took the chance to do something as unreasonable as what he was currently doing. All the soap that had stuck to Ara's body, for one reason or another, had lost its scent and absorbed hers instead. Among the many things Oberon had to learn since Eve assigned him to the menagerie was how to make perfume, and he used that knowledge to make one out of that soap. Ever since then, he'd carry that bottle with him and occasionally take it out to smell Ara's fragrance.

There were so many irrational things about all of that, Oberon could hardly believe he had done and still was doing something like that. Her scent made him focus on all the wrong things at all the wrong times- namely, on Ara, and while doing work unrelated to her- but it also made him feel relaxed.

It made no sense.

It. Made. No. Sense.

Pushing those thoughts away took far more effort than usual. Down there, in the antechamber, Ara had invited him. That, or he had misunderstood something. A possibility he didn't want to rule out, since he didn't really trust his own judment anymore when it came to her. He nearly accepted her invite. He had touched her skin several times before, when carrying her around while she was exhausted, or even when washing her while she couldn't move, but that would have been... different? ... like that one morning?

Dinner. Dinner. He had to make dinner. And before that, he had to go get another shirt for himself. He violently forced those thoughts into his mind, hammering them into his own head, and walked away. After having properly clothed himself up, he headed to the kitchen. There he found a large pile of sheets resting on the table. By the look of it, those were well over a thousand pages. He already knew what that was, but he still took a quick glance at the content just to be sure. And, indeed, that was Rena's report on their guest's condition. She had probably finished working on it and gone to sleep, or she wouldn't have left it there. Oberon then looked out of the window. He said he was going to make dinner, but it was well past dinner time. Calling it a midnight snack would have been more appropriate. He prepared something light to eat then left, taking Rena's report with him.

A good while later, Ara walked into the kitchen. There were some drops of water still falling from her tails, but aside from that she had dried herself up before leaving the bathroom. As for clothes, she had put on Oberon's shirt and nothing else. She didn't really see a point in putting on the gloves and thighhigh since she'd have taken those off soon anyway, and didn't feel like going to her room to get some clothes then going back down to the kitchen. She did button the shirt up this time though. She waited a bit to see if Oberon would come back from wherever he had gone, and since that didn't happen she simply ate what she found. More of a snack than a dinner, if one were to ask her, but she probably wouldn't have eaten a full meal anyway. The taste was great.

Then she headed back to her room. She war tired, but not to the point of going straight to sleep. Probably. She locked the door and called Obe, who came out from where she had last hidden him. She took off Oberon's shirt and put it on his younger-looking version, standing naked in front of it. She was feeling a bit flustered, but that was probably a consequence of how damn cute he looked like in that clothing, which for him was way oversized. Did that mean that what troubled her was the way Oberon's... let's say "adult" body looked? ... no, it probably had to do with Oberon himself, not simply with his look.

That was confusing.

Maybe because her stomach wasn't empty anymore, fatigue began to assault her body. She decided to disregard whatever else she had decided to do and simply went to sleep, hugging Obe, her tails covering them both.

* * *

The sun was already high when Ara woke up. She rolled around on the bed for a few minutes, but all those tails made it more uncomfortable than she had expected so she simply got up. She told Obe to fix the bed -twice, since the first time she spoke she half-yawned t the words, making them nearly impossible to understand- while she looked for something to wear.

She settled for a black, sheer top -by the look of it, it was made of nylon-, a white shirt held in place by a rather large, red cloth tied behind her back and a white, short shirt whose hem was closer to her waist than it was to her knees. Worn together, they looked like a single, short dress. Then she put on an half-white half-black tie, which mostly covered the metallical collar she couldn't take off, and white, wide, detached sleeves, and after that she tied black wraps around her ankles and wrists, and then put another, white, smaller layer over those, with neither covering her fingers. Lastly, she tied a white, large bow behind her head. Normally she'd also attach a few strands of cloth behind her back when wearing those clothes, but since her tails were out she didn't really see a point in using them. Aside from the wraps around her ankles and wrists, all those clothes had a few black and orange decorations here and there over them. That outfit was great to move around in, but due to how much skin it showed off and how greatly it emphasized her curves, her breasts in particular, she didn't wear it all that often.

That, and it left her barefeet, something she wasn't too comfortable with in the city.

She gave her face a quick wash in the bathroom then walked downstairs. There were a few luggages lying near the entrance, and she found both Rena and Oberon in the kitchen. Upon seeing her, the elf got up from her chair and walked up to her.

"Are you alright? I wanted to check up on you yesterday, but my own work took longer than I had expected" she spoke.

"I'm feeling great, don't worry about it" she replied casually.

"Are you sure?" Rena insisted after having quickly counted Ara's tails.

"Totally" she said back, briefly waving all seven of them behind her back as if to say there was nothing wrong with them.

The elf stared at her for a few seconds, and... she did look fine. She sounded fine too, and considering how easy Ara usually was to read, that was a good sign. Maybe she really was worrying too much.

"Lunch is almost ready" Oberon commented.

The meal went by... normally. Ara and Rena had a surprisingly casual chat, while Oberon kept reading his book. Then they heard something outside.

"This is probably my carriage" the elf said as she got up.

Her departure turned to be... well, , definitively not ceremonious. She said goodbye, took her luggages and walked out, stopping on the door for a brief moment to take a last look at Ara. As fine as she looked at the moment, Rena still coulnd't help but feel somewhat worried about her. But she had other things she had to take care of, so staying there wasn't really an option. And thinking about it, she hadn't really provided much help anyway. That thought left a bad aftertaste in her mind as the carriage brought her away.

Oberon and Ara stayed silently in front of the entrance for half a minute or so after the elf left.

"... so... it's just the two of us again" she said then.

"So it seems"

"Do you feel like playing some chess?"

"Yes"

Around six hours later, Oberon lost the game.

Dinner went by uneventfully, and as she sun set Ara went back to her room. She had half expected him to say something about her new outfit, but at the same time she wasn't surprised he kept silent about it. She thought about locking the door, but... Rena was gone, and Oberon said he'd spend the night in the lower leves sorting some things out. She might as well leave it unlocked. She lied face down on the bed, her tails waving in the air briefly before falling over the sheets too.

"... Obe" she then called out.

The small-sized, personality-less Oberon got out from behind the wardrobe and stood next to the bed, awaiting orders. It still had Oberon's shirt on. Truth be told, Ara wasn't really planning to make him take that off. Obe just looked too adorable with that on. She stared at him for a few minutes, then got up and started searching the room. She didn't remember where she had left it, so finding the anal plug took quite a while. She handed it to Obe then sat on her knees next to the bed, lying down on it with the upper half of her body. Ara then pulled her skirt up as she ordered him to get closer.

... yeah, that was rather embarassing. Not overly so, but still. Her tails wavered a bit as she instructed him to rest the tip of the plug against her rear. She breathed in, out, in, and then out again. She was pretty sure her cheeks were a bit red.

"Push it in. Slowly" she ordered.

Obediently, he did as he was told. Her fur pricked up for a moment when the foreign object began to push her inner walls aside to make room for itself. She told Obe to slow down a bit, since she hadn't done any preparations beforehand. The plug kept creeping in deeper within her, the sluggish but perfectly constant motion sending a weak but continuous series of jolts through her system. Even at that pace, however, it didn't take that long for the insertion to be complete. When her... assistant stopped moving, Ara got on her knees and turned around.

As expressionless as he was -not that Oberon himself was exactly that expressive either-, Obe was still a delightful sight. She unbuttoned his shirt -both the shirts, actually- and ran an hand over his cold, small chest. She could feel her heartbeat increasing. She then grabbed his hands, pushed them over her buttocks and started using them to fondle her own rear for a few seconds, until Obe got the message and started doing so himself. His motions were mechanical, and having to tell him what to do every single time was rather annoying, but his looks alone more than made up for that. She then pulled her shirt down a bit, just enough to fully reveal her breasts. She still had her top on, but that didn't really hide anything, especially since she was wearing no bra.

Obe was still standing on his feet, which meant he was at about the right height. So she took his head and pushed it against her chest, running one hand over his hair while sliding the other down his back, all the while savoring the way his fondling of her rear moved the plug around within her, albeith very slightly. It was a soft and gentle stimulation, but a pleasant one nonetheless, enhanced one way or another by the thought of who -... or "what"? "Who" sounded better- was providing her with it.

She then told Obe to suck her nipples through the sheer top covering them, and as always he did as ordered. Such a lovely sight that was for her. She remained like that for a while, until she decided it was around time to get to the point. She placed her hand over Obe's and moved it to the plug, made him grab it and started pulling it back, slowly but not overly so, while slightly twisting it around, before pushing it back in. Her breathing grew heavier as the pleasure started to really pile up, her other hand now teasing her other nipple as Obe kept stimulating her, the dildo's back and forth motion causing her tails to jolt briefly whenever it hit an especially sensitive spot. Her fangs moved to rest their tip on her lips, ready to sink into them when needed.

She instinctively brought an hand between her legs, only for it to meet the chastity belt. Right. Well, that wasn't too big of a deal. She brought her focus back to the parts of her body which weren't covered in steel, her climax getting closer and closer, her face red. She grabbed Obe's face and pulled it away from her chest, just enough to turn it up and stare at him directly in the eyes. Her climax was right there, mere moments away. Her fur was standing up, her ears twitching in anticipation, when...

Something stung her.

She looked down. The feeling came from right beneath the chastity belt. It didn't really hurt, actually, she almost didn't feel it, but... then she felt dizzy. Or rather, drowsy. For a mere moment though. No, she was perfectly awake. But... she wasn't really feeling anything anymore. Or rather, Obe was still moving the plug back and forth as she had instructed him to, and that did feel nice, but... it was as if they'd just gotten started. She had basically already reacher her climax, she just had to reach out and actually grabd it, but that sting somehow brought her back to square one.

"... no way"

She repeated exactly the same motions as before, albeith with a terrible presentiment, and... once again, right before she could orgasm, something beneath the chastity belt stung her, washing all the pleasure away. It didn't even leave her with a feeling of frustration -not a strong one at least-, since her arousal was somehow greatly reduced too by that sting, but it just... angered her. Like, what the hell was that? ... well, sure, it made sense for a chastity belt to have a function like that -however the bloody hell that worked- but still. She calmly pushed Obe back, told him to go back behind the wardrobe, got up, and turned around.

She took the bed's pillow and threw it against the wall, with so much force one couldn't help but wonder what that pillow was actually made of, since it didn't explode upon impact. She walked up to it, grabbed it and then threw it again, the sound it made upon crashing against the concrete filling the room and probably spilling out it as well, echoing in the nearby rooms. She didn't want to destroy the furniture, so she threw the pillow again, but that wasn't exactly a great way to vent her anger, so just one or two launches were nowhere near enough. She kept flinging the pillow against the wall again and again, and at some point she started shouting as well, until she managed to calm down. A bit, at least. Then she took off her clothes and went to sleep, with only the sheer top to cover her skin. That and the chastity belt.

At the same time, Oberon was sitting on the stairs, reading. He wasn't sure why he had decided to go to Ara's room -probably to get his shirt back-, but as he stepped out of the elevator he could hear her screaming and, by the sound of it, throwing something around. He was quite sure he knew what had happened, and concluded that it was a bad time to talk with her.

He could no longer hear anything though. Either she had calmed down, or she had gone to sleep. Either way, he could always ask her about his shirt the next day.


	23. An Unexpected Turn of Events

**An Unexpected Turn of Events**

Oberon had finished making breakfast and was just about to go wake Ara up when she walked inside the kitchen, yawning.

"Good morning"

She said something, probably greeting him back, but as she hadn't waited for her yawn to be over before speaking, Oberon couldn't quite understand what she was saying. She took a seat and started eating, the chair turned to the side to make room for her tails. She was hungry. That muffin of sort he gave her helped her, sure, but didn't quite make up for the skipped meals. Breakfast went by silently, maybe surprisingly so, and lasted quite a while.

"So" she spoke once she was done chewing her tenth or eleventh brioche "What's next?"

"... you're talking about your next session?"

"What else?" she asked back, her tails waving to her sides "I don't really feel like doing much today, so I might as well get some work done"

"You sound somewhat... eager"

"Oh, I'm sure you know very well why I sound like that" she replied, almost grinning. A faint shade of red appeared on her cheeks. She was aware of it, and the fact bothered her a bit.

She was also right. He didn't even have to guess, the collar she was wearing notified him when the belt stung her. Though it did so with an hour or so of delay as it happened while it was making a back-up of its files.

"Very well then. Let's meet at the elevator in half an hour" he said.

Then he got up and started cleaning the dishes. Ara, on her part, headed back to her room to cuddle with Obe for a bit before going back downstairs. Soon after, they were already heading to the lower levels. They reached the ninth floor and stepped out. She remembered that floor. That four-tailed fox's dome was there. She thought about paying it a visit, but as Oberon headed to a different door, she told herself she could always do that later -on another day even- and followed him. The antechamber they stepped into was full of... fridges. And in the middle of it was a round table covered in empty glass vials and other things Ara couldn't quite name. She was fairly sure she'd seen something like that in an alchemy shop once. Oberon then handed her the key and turned around.

Maybe because she was rather... focused on her job at the moment, Ara wasn't really bothered by his presence even as she removed the metallic underwear from her body, leaving nothing but a short skirt to cover her privates. Or maybe she was right and what caused her to act weird the previous day was really just exhaustion. ... then why did she blush -albeith ever so slightly- in the kitchen, not even an hour earlier?

 _Whatever_ she thought as she placed the chastity device on the table and handed the key back to Oberon.

Their eyes met for a moment, and Ara felt her heart skip a beat.

_... damn it._

"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" he asked.

"No, I'm not" she replied, and from that question she got an idea of what kind of environment they were about to enter.

Inside the dome was a cave. It wasn't the first one Ara walked into, but that one was absolutely devoid of light. If not for the one coming in through the still open door, the place would have been absolutely pitch black. Her guess wasn't exactly right on the mark, but it wasn't too far off either.

"I can light a torch if you want" he said, his voice echoing against the rocky walls "But I'd rather not bring any light inside here, if possible"

"It's fine, I can see for short distances in the dark"

Oberon turned to face him.

"You can?"

"I can" she replied, her tails fluttering around her.

Maybe it was just an impression, but he thought her eyes shone for a split second. For some reason, she looked... threatening? Unsettling maybe. Something about her was making him uncomfortable. In a different way than usual.

Without a word, he closed the door behind them and started walking, rather slowly. Ara followed his steps. In that state, her pupils much more dilated than usual, she could see up to four, maybe five meters ahead, though telling colors apart was rather hard. As for the cave, it seemed to be a single, massive open space, though she was basing that assumpion on her hearing rather than her sight. Their footsteps rumbled through the otherwise dead silent darkness. It was rather unnerving.

Or rather, it should have been rather unnerving, but Ara felt calm. No, not even that. She was curious, and even more so, eager. She hadn't asked Oberon what was inside there, but she liked to think it'd be a better partner than that feathered snake.

They both stopped walking at the same moment, Ara's ears standing up as they caught a sound a normal human most likely wouldn't have been able to perceive. An extremely sharp noise cut through the air, crushing against them, the floor and the walls, bouncing off all of them and then hitting them again, rebounding again and again, turning from a simple sound to an inaudible cacophony before dying off.

"You can stay here" Oberon said before walking away.

She heard him sit on the ground, just barely outside her sight range. On one hand she doubted he knew exactly how far she could see, on the other she felt like he had stepped exactly that far precisely because he knew. Ara turned around, instinctively on guard, when the fur on her tails caught an air current, or rather a gust of air. She turned back again upon hearing something land on the rocks, too far for her to see. Another sharp sound crashed against her, this time more intense than before. Her ears twitched, the noise being a tad too strong for her tastes. Then something walked forward, getting closer and closer to her, one step at a time. Even as it entered her vision range, all she could see was a silouhette darker than its surrounding. She focused her gaze on it, but only as the creature arrived within two meters of her she managed to make out its details.

The first thing that came to her mind upon looking at it was an humanoid bat. It was just barely over two meters tall, but considering it's hunched posture, its actual height was probably around two and a half meters. Its feet had only three fingers, each composed by a massive claw, and its leg were more similar to the hind ones of a quadrupedal than to those of a bipedal. Its arms were as long as the rest of its body, to the point she thought it was resting its weight on its hands at first sight, but then she realized that those weren't actually touching the ground. It had seven fingers on each arm, but four were extremely long, linked together and to his arms by a dark, thin layer of membrane, forming its wings. The remaining three fingers, while much shorter, were still unusually long, and one of those was an opposable thumb. Its shoulders were wide, and its body in general was really muscular. Its neck was large and short. As for its face, it had a large nose, exactly like that of an actual bat, but its eyes were extremely small. She wasn't even sure they were actually open. Its mouth was smaller than she had expected, with several thin, long teeth within it. Its ears were massive, easily twice as large as Ara's. Lastly, its waist, thighs, ankles and neck were covered in a thick fur.

She... liked it. It wasn't exactly her dream picture of a male -far from it, actually- but it was still quite the sight. Except maybe for its nose. She really wasn't a fan of that. The creature sent another ultrasound from its mouth, Ara's shape forming better and better inside its mind, then raised its arms, spreading its large wings and flapping them a couple of times as it straightened its back, as if to show off. In response, Ara spreaded her tails to her sides and above her head. After that brief... confrontation? The bat pulled its limbs back and took a step forward. She lowered her tails as well, and the creature took another step, and another, and then another, until its face loomed over hers. She looked it in the eyes -closed as they were- and, when the bat started to smell her, she did the same. Quite to her surprise, that thing had a very faint smell, which reminded her of iron. Not the most pleasant aroma she could think of, but at least it didn't really stink. The creature, on the other hand, seemed to find her scent pleasant as it pushed its nose closer to her, crunching down as it ran its face from her forehead to her shoulder, then along her arms, to her hands, and then over her tails, carefully touching her fur with its fingers. She pushed her tails against his body, and after a brief moment of confusion the bat understood what had happened, and closed an arm around her fluffy tails while following them to their base with its free hand.

Ara turned around just a bit and placed her hands over its chest. Its skin was a bit too rough to the touch for her tastes. She moved them down along its sides, placing them over its fur. It was quite warm, but she was absolutely sure hers felt incomparably better than that. Well, she'd get a bit depressed if that weren't the case. Then she got down on her knees, making sure not to move her tails away from the bat as she lowered herself. She was already in the mood, but guessed she had to get her partner into it too. She pushed her hands into its fur and reached its member, pulling it up. She closed an hand around it and began rubbing it up and down, gently but not too slowly, as the organ quickly grew harder between her fingers.

She rubbed it a bit again as she pulled her shirt down. Then the bat grabbed her. They both remained still for a moment, then the creature started pulling her. After seeing that she wasn't resisting, he raised her above the ground and turned her upside down. She ended up with its erect member right against her face, while feeling its breath on her exposed privates which were, in turn, right on front of its face, her skirt having fallen down over her belly. Then she felt something running over the skin around her entrance, which had been rather wet since... quite a while. Thinking that she might as well repay the favor -especially given her current position- she rested her lips against the tip of its member, though she didn't really have much experience with that. The idea itself didn't thrill her either, but she was open to new experiences. At the moment, at least.

She began to lick the creature's member, slowly as she needed to get used to the taste, which was... it sort of made her miss her breakfast. Though it wasn't that awful either. At the same time, its partner began running its own tongue over her entrance before sliding it in, helping her focusing on something better than what she was tasting. Its tongue was surprisingly long, running within her with a spiral motion, and was covered by several large bumps which sents jolts up -down?- her spine, her fur wavering a bit. She remained almost still for a short while, savoring the feeling, small waves of pleasure running through her body in quick succession, before resting her mouth over the creature's shaft. Considering how she complained about her previous partner not caring about her, she couldn't really not reciprocate now. Or at least that's how she felt.

Helping herself with her hands, she slowly pushed the member inside her mouth, with quite some trouble considering both her position and the constant jolts coming from her own private areas. It was rather large, but definitively not one of the biggest she had to deal with at the menagerie. That said, its skin was rough and covered in bumps. Careful not to accidentally wound it with her fangs, she closed her lips and began moving her head back and forth, gently. Or rather, just slowly. She wasn't really sure how to do that. She guessed she had to use her tongue? Neither the taste nor the smell really encouraged her to do that.

Then the bat's own tongue hit an especially sensitive spot within her, making her muscles contract briefly, the sudden surge of warmth spreading from between her legs shaking her body. That ended up also making her push her head further down, her tongue ending up hitting the head of its member.

 _Well, whatever_ she thought as she started licking it while moving back and forth a bit.

It wasn't so bad, in all honesty. Or at least, she had expected it to be worse. They kept pleasuring each other like that for a while, the bat's tongue sliding deeper and deeper within her, its bumps rubbing against her insides as fluid began to pour from its lower half inside Ara's mouth. It tasted bitter, but she was enjoying the... mutuality of the situation. Her jaw was getting quite tired when the shaft began pulsating against her lips, more liquid coming out of it, slowly dripping out of her mouth and falling on the rocks beneath.

She brought her focus away from its tongue and shifted it to hers, moving it up and down against the creature's member, until it tensed up all of a sudden, releasing its seed within her mouth, the warm, sticky fluid filling her cheeks, causing her ears to twitch several times. She reflexively pulled her head back, coughing a little. It tasted sour and bitter, and its smell was stronger than she had expected, enough to make her feel dizzy for a moment. Some of it stuck to her throat, and she nearly spit it all out, but that felt like it'd have been rather rude of her so she simply let it fall off her open mouth instead. She really didn't feel like swallowing that, it'd have surely stuck to her throat. She was also somewhat disappointed that her partner came first. The bat emitted a sharp, barely audible screech and stopped for a moment as some more of its seed escaped its member, ending up on Ara's face this time. Her head was starting to spin a little.

Then, to her surprise and -primarily- delight, the bat pushed its own tongue deeper inside of her, the bumps on it now scraping against the entrance to her cervix. She focused her attention on that, the twisting motion sending more and more jolts along her limbs, her tails fluttering around them both. She moaned, albeith with a somewhat low tone, the pleasure reverberating through her system without overbearing her, until her muscles stiffed up, her insides pushing down against the creature's tongue. She felt like she could make out the shape of most of the bumps rubbing against her as her fingernails ran violently along her arms, leaving marks on her skin, the pain sending her over the edge, her orgasm causing her fur to stand right up as she let out a low but constant, pleased moan.

The warm feeling slowly faded, together with her voice, which still echoed around them for a brief second. The bat then pulled its tongue out and turned her back around, gently resting her on the ground.

"How considerate" she commented as she ran her hand along its face, her tails hovering right above the rocks.

She looked around, but could see nothing to sit on or lean against. Not that she could see that far in the first place, since the place was still just as dark as it was when they walked in. She thought about how to get around the height difference for a minute or so. Then the bat screeched lowly and lowered its legs, its hocks almost touching the ground, and held its hands in front of its body, at just the right height for her to use them as steps. Ara smiled, her tails waving cheerfully behind her as she walked forward. She placed her feet on its... fingers, rather than hands, and held on to his shoulders as well to better lift herself, then adjusted her position and began lowering her body, using one hand to make sure its member would enter her.

Their juices together made the quick penetration extremely smooth, the shaft sliding in for its whole length within her, pushing some air out of her lungs. The creature placed one hand over her rear and another behind her back to make her more comfortable, it's long fingers open wide to stretch the membrane of its wing open as if to shelter her, before properly getting back on its legs, the simple motion pushing its organ around a bit inside her, sending weak but enjoyable jolts through her. With Ara leaning back against its arm, the creature pulled its hips back, her body resting on its other hand to not move down together with its waist. Then it pushed itself back in, almost gently. In comparison, its tongue was definitively longer, but the difference in thickness and the irregularity of the bumps made up for it.

Slowly but steadily, the creature picked up the pace, the sound of their flesh hitting against each other echoing more and more against the dark, albeith its fur acted as a bit of a cushion. Ara closed her eyes as she brought her hands to her chest, playing with her nipples through the sheer top, savoring every wave of pleasure she felt surging within her, some of her tails wrapped around her partner while others waved around, her ragged breath alternating with her low moans.

Her back began to arc, pushing against the creature's arm, as the pleasure built up, her fur standing more and more on edge, the jolts running up her spine growing stronger and more frequent, until they turned into a single, continous current, her breath stopping as her fangs digged into her lips just enough to bring her to her climax. Her tails all wrapped around her partner as her insides clamped down against its member harder, enhancing the feeling, making it last just a bit more. Her lungs filled with air again as she took a deep breath, her chest moving up and down rhythmically. The bat, on its side, had stopped moving, but once her orgasm faded it started pushing itself back and forth again inside of her.

Still sensitive, Ara decided to let her voice run a bit wilder than before. She slid an hand under her skirt, placed a finger over her clit and began gently rubbing it, matching her strokes with her partner's motions, relishing the pleasure. Not too long after, a familiar pulsation warned her of her partner's incoming ejaculation. She held on to him as best as she could and started moving her hips up and down as well, waves after waves of pleasure crashing against her. Her ears twitched as the bat's screeches slowly changed pitch, turning into a frequence she could hear. Then, at the same moment his seed began to fill her insides, its voice suddenly grew sharper, to the point it hurt Ara, a sudden pain entering her ears and stinging her brain. For the better, as that way she didn't have to bite herself, the pain being enough to send her over the edge without spoiling the warm feeling spreading within her, its seed reaching inside her womb as the muscles of both of them tensed up before relaxed. Then they both remained rather still.

That didn't last long. Ara wasn't done. She was having a really good time, and didn't want it to just end there. She held on to the bat as she got a better footing then pushed it down on the ground. The creature fell on its back and stared at her, flapping its wings as it tried to get up, but Ara placed an hand over its chest and held it down, her tails spreaded wide behind her as some inaudible whisper parted from her lips. Her partner seemed to calm down, so she placed herself above it and began to lower her body, quickly pushing its whole length inside herself again.

Oberon was staring. For some reason, he had a bad feeling. Like something was about to go wrong, or had already done so. He took a step closer, wondering if he should stop her. He couldn't really see anything wrong. Ara looked fine, and the bat wasn't acting aggressively. All the opposite, if anything. For the time being, he decided to wait and see.

Completely unaware of his thoughts, Ara had started moving her hips up and down as she straddled the bat, smiling. The creature, on its part, seemed a bit tired, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. She kept moving, the bumps on her partner's member rubbing her insides in a greatly pleasant way. Quite to her surprise, however, pleasure built up faster within the creature than within herself. She wasn't quite there yet when she began to feel its flesh pulsating against her inner walls. So she brought an hand over her clit and started rubbing it almost violently while her other hand pinched one of her nipples, her breath ragged, her face flushed, her tails waving wildly, but her voice surprisingly low.

The feeling of the creature's seed filling her again, forcefully pushing the previous load outside, the warm fluid overflowing from between her legs, brought her over the edge as well, her fangs biting into her hand, blood dripping from where her teeth met her flesh as her muscles vibrated, the pleasure echoing through her nerves as she let out a soft, long moan which mixed with the bat's screech, echoing together with it within the cave.

The pleasure slowly subsided, and Ara got back on her feet, even helping the bat up. The creature, its back hunched, slowly took a step back. Then, seeing that she wasn't moving, it spreaded its wing and, after what could be seen as a bow, flew away. She stretched her arms and legs before fixing up her clothes, then turned around as she heard Oberon's footsteps.

"... how do you feel?" he asked

"Great. Why do you ask?" she replied. Her face was red, her breath ragged. Not really surprising considering what she'd been doing up until a few moments ago, but rathen than aroused or flustered, she looked... kind of feverish.

"Haven't you noticed?"

"What?"

In response, Oberon merely pointed to... well, her. She looked at her own body. The claws on her fingers looked normal. The white, almost silvery fur completely covering her hands didn't seem to have any problem either, and the same went for the one covering her feet. She checked her whiskers, gently touching them, and they were just the length they were supposed to be. So she looked at her legs. As usual, she was standing on her phalanges. It felt a bit uncomfortable, for some reason, but how else was she supposed to stand? Then she counted her tails. They were eight.

"... what are you going on about?" she asked, since she couldn't find anything wrong with herself.

"Is that normal?"

"What?" she asked again, this time rather annoyed.

"Your appearance" he said. He could tell by looking that the bones in her feet had been rearranged a bit, their shape changed.

"I've always looked like this" she replied "Are you ok?"

"... maybe not"

It was hard to tell which one of them was more confused as they walked back to the antechamber. He couldn't help but notice that the sound of her footsteps had changed. As they left the completely dark cave behind them, Oberon handed her a towel, which she used to wipe her face, and the chastity belt.

"... right" she said after staring at it for a while, as if she had forgotten what that was, or why he was giving it to her.

She put it back on, clearly bothered by it, and then they headed to the elevator. It was still somewhat early for lunch, but Oberon decided to start cooking anyway, while Ara went to take a bath. Probably because of that, he ended up cooking too much food. Ara would probably need at least three meals to finish all of that. He walked upstairs and knocked at the bathroom's door.

"It's ready" he said.

"I'll be there in a minute" she replied from the other side.

The rest of the day went by... normally. Truth be told, Oberon wasn't sure where Ara had spent the afternoon -she wasn't in her room when he went there- but she did show up for dinner, and he decided not to ask what she had spent the rest of the day doing or where. That said, as she was eating he couldn't help but notice that her breath was still ever so faintly ragged. ... did she have a bit more fur than before? He wasn't sure.

"Are you feeling well?" he asked as he brought his gaze back to his book.

"Again with that? Yes, I'm perfectly fine"

He didn't quite believe that, but he didn't really know what to do about her condition either. For the time being, he decided to suspend her work and see if she'd turn back to normal at least a bit.

With no further words between them, quick glances being the only thing they exchanged, the day ended.

* * *

Ara hadn't spend the night in her room. Or at least that seemed to be the case, since when he went to call her for breakfast not only she wasn't there, the bed hadn't even been used. When he walked back downstairs, however, the food he had prepared -or rather, heated up from yesterday- was gone. All of it, and that was a lot of food. He searched around a bit, but couldn't find her. Truth be told, he didn't look that hard for her. A part of him didn't really want to meet her at the moment, for one reason or another. So he headed to the lower levels to work. When, a few hours later, he came back to the ground floor, he found that the elevator had been used. Rather mechanically, he went to the kitchen and made lunch. The sky was hidden behind the clouds. It was starting to rain. Then he walked upstairs.

There, in the hallway, he found a rather large trail of water connecting the bathroom to Ara's room. He went to the latter and knocked at the door. No reply. He knocked again. Silence. So he opened the door and walked in. The room was empty, though there were little pools of water here and there. He walked back to the hallway and headed to the bathroom. He knocked, and this time he got a reply.

"Come in" she said.

He did so.

"You don't have to knock" she commented "The door isn't locked anyway"

The sight in front of him left Oberon rather... puzzled. Ara was sitting on a stool, completely naked except for the belt, the collar and a towel rested on her nape and falling over her chest, doing a very poor job at covering her breasts. She didn't seem to care though. Water was dripping from her hair and fomr her fur -which covered her arms all the way up to her elbows and her legs up to her knees-, her skin still wet, while Obe was drying her tails with a towel. All nine of them. And with several towels actually, one wouldn't have been enough.

"... that's my shirt" he eventually spoke. Obe was, indeed, still wearing his shirt.

"It's not the only one you have"

"That's true, but I'd like to have it back"

"It has your scent on though"

"I don't have a scent" he replied.

"... weird" Ara replied after sniffing the air "... there's a faint smell coming from you. ... no, wait... from your pocket. It's too weak, I can't quite tell what it is... what do you have there?"

She was smiling. Had her mouth always been that large? It seemed to be almost twice as wide as it was supposed to be, reaching where her human ears once were.

"Your work is suspended until you get back to normal" he informed her.

"Normal? What do you mean? I'm perfectly normal. Actually, I feel better than usual" she replied as she crossed her legs. Her feet weren't quite feet anymore, they were just like the paws of a fox. Actually, the bone structure of her whole legs had changed into that of a fox's hind legs, with just a few differences to allow her to still stand up like a normal person would.

"You've always acted a bit different from usual after growing some tails, but now it's gotten... worrying"

"Worrying? Are you worried? About what? There's nothing wrong with anything here"

"I don't remember having ever seen your body transform in such a way even when Eun still resided within you"

Ara lowered her gaze, bringing an hand to her chin, thinking.

"... are you sure you haven't burned some circuit or something like that?"

 _No_ he though.

"Yes" he said.

"... stop" Ara said after a brief moment to Obe, who stepped back.

Then, silence. An almost unnerving silence filled the room. The water dripping from Ara's body onto the floor was the only thing they could hear, and it seemed as loud as a waterfall.

"... say" she then spoke as she stood up, her tails waving to her sides and behind her "Do you remember that morning?"

"Yes" he replied.

He felt like taking a step back, but forced himself not to. Ara, on her part, took a step forward.

"I'd quite like to pick up where we left off" she said.

Oberon forgot not to take a step back.

"You're not thinking straight"

Ara took a step forward.

"That didn't quite stop you back then"

A step back. What she just said pierced his mind.

"My body doesn't feel sexual pleasure. You'd be better off with a different partner"

A step forward.

"I wonder about that..." she replied, laughing softly, "At worst, that's nothing more than the perfect excuse for me to think about nothing but my own enjoyment, isn't it?"

Back.

"You haven't finished drying up"

Forward. He was grasping at straws. He knew it. He hated himself for doing that.

"We can head to the shower. Or the bathtub, it's still full. Both are fine for me"

Back. He was grasping at straws. She knew it. She loved him for doing that.

"Your lunch is getting cold"

Forward. Ara laughed. Her mouth wasn't supposed to have that many teeth. Her teeth weren't supposed to be that sharp.

"We can always reheat it later"

Back. He was in the hallway. He had been since a few steps.

"I'm not allowed to take your chastity belt off outside of your work hours"

Forward.

"Oh, this crude accessory" she replied, laughing softly as she rested her index over the belt "That was really rude of you, not telling me that I might sting myself with it. Though..."

Her claw dug into the steel like a sharp sword through warm butter, cutting through it with concerning ease. The chastity device fell to the floor, sliced open on the side.

"It won't be a problem anymore" she said, smiling.

There weren't many thoughts in Oberon's mind at the moment.

He couldn't talk her out of it, so his only options were to either restrain her or knock her out somehow.

Doing so would have been... troublesome.

Did he really want to stop her?

Oberon pushed that last thought away with extreme violence.

"So" Ara said as she took one more step towards him, her legs bending, ready to dash forward "With your consent, or without it?"

_With._

"Neither" he replied.

_With. Obviously without. With. ... out... ?_


	24. Passionate Confrontation

**Passionate Confrontation**

Ara dashed forward. At first, Oberon had intended to grab her, pin her down and hit her on the head hard enough to make her faint, but she was fast. Faster than he had expected. He knew that her tails enhanched her physical prowess, but not to that point. He managed to get an hold of her, but not a good one and so, rather than trying to push her to the ground, he used her own momentum to throw her behind him. Or at least that was the plan, but Ara somehow got her feet to touch the ground as he pushed her behind himself, getting a solid enough foothold to grab him and try to throw him instead. Just as he was being lifted up, her fingers holding him by the shirt, he kicked her ankles.

Ara lost her footing and fell, bringing Oberon down with her, but before hitting the ground he managed to get behind her. He locked his legs around her arms and put her in a stranglehold, aiming to make her lose consciousness. They struggled like that for almost a minute, rolling around on the ground, then Ara got back on her feet as if neither of them had any weight, Oberon still on her back, and threw herself backward against the wall. Cracks appeared all over it as some pieces flew around. She kept bashing him against the wall until his grip loosened. Just barely, but still enough for her to free her arms, grab him and throw him away. Oberon flew across the hallway, crashing against the wall on the opposite end.

"So you want it rough" she commented, half laughing as she caught her breath, one hand rubbing her neck.

"I'd rather not have it at all" he lied. He was fairly sure she used to not get that kind of strength when Eun was still within her. She also usually didn't change as much as she did now though.

Ara took a deep breath as Oberon stood up. That was going to be harder than he had expected.

* * *

Less than twenty minutes later, the sound of glass shattering cut through the air, allowing the rain to come in through the now broken window. A destroyed chair was now resting in the empty streets outside. As for who threw it, that might have been hard to tell.

"That hurts" Ara commented as she stepped forward -limping ever so slightly- before stopping to gently rub her leg. Not that the chair had anything to do with that though.

She was still naked, so it was easy to see there were quite a lot of bruises a bit all over her body. Some looked quite bad too. There was also a small trail of blood dripping from her mouth.

"Mistress won't be pleased to see the menagerie in these conditions" Oberon replied as he got up, the broken table of the kitchen lying around him.

His shirt had been torn here and there, and the same went for his trousers. His fake skin had several claw marks all over it, and there was still a bit of blood-like liquid dripping from Ara's fingertips. One of his arms was almost hanging to his side. Since it had been cut off for half of its width, a bit below the shoulder, he was having trouble properly moving it. Three fingers weren't even receiving his commands anymore, and the rest of the limb was starting to not respond either. On the bright side, it's not like he could feel pain.

Things had clearly gotten out of hands. Though Ara seemed to be enjoying herself.

"Alright, break" she then said.

"... excuse me?"

"It's gotten a bit cold" she replied, even though there was some sweat running down her skin "I'll get something to wear, then we can continue"

Oberon moved his gaze to the broken window, at least as much as he could without turning his head away from her.

"The air is cold, indeed. I wonder whose fault it is that it's gotten inside the building"

Leaving the shattered glass aside, there also was a gaping hole in the wall upstairs, chilly wind blowing in from both entrances. Fixing all of that up would probably take a while, at least if he had to do it all by himself. Maybe they still had some work drones he could use lying around though. He wasn't sure.

"Yours, clearly. It wasn't my idea to play brawl" she said smiling before turning her back to him.

Maybe it was just his impression, but he thought he saw her swaying her hips a bit as she walked away. Her tails kind of covered her though, so he wasn't sure.

_I'm... just seeing things_

He sat down there where he was and looked at his arm. There were sparks coming from the cut every now and then, with severed cables, torn metal plates and other componensts making up his inner body exposed to the outside world in proximity of the wound. Damage? Wound. He could barely move his elbow at that point. So he grabbed it with its other hand and tore the limb off. No point in keeping it attached if it was nothing more than dead weight. Then he checked the rest of his body. Most of the cut wounds were superficial and didn't really get through the layer of fake skin, but a few were deep enough to reach underneath it. Those were more troublesome. Not to talk about the other damages he'd taken by being thrown against the walls or simply punched and kicked.

In normal conditions he would have been able to hold his ground against Ara. Actually, he was sure he was stronger than her in a simple hand to hand combat, maybe even faster, but in an armed fight things would have been different since Ara was more skilled with the spear than Oberon was with swords. They never really fought nor sparred together, but in a serious fight he'd have bet on Ara winning. Not like it really mattered at the moment though. In her current state she was basically just toying with him anyway. Did she always get that much stronger when using Eun's power?

He sighed and let himself fall on his back. He was no longer sure why he was trying to stop her anymore, and at that point he didn't even really care. He had tried. Maybe he hadn't quite given it his best shot, but seeing how things turned out, that didn't really make a difference. He moved his remaining hand over his pocket. Against all logic and expectations, the bottle with Ara's scent inside was still intact.

"Oh? You're taking a nap?" Ara asked as she walked back inside the kitchen.

He rested his gaze on her. She had put her clothes back on. For a brief moment he wondered if she had picked a shoeless attire because she knew she'd change like that. Probably not though.

"I was thinking about how to explain all of this to the mistress" he replied as he got back up.

Her ears twitched. She raised an eyebrow.

"How rude" she said, her voice sounding a bit annoyed "Talking about another woman now of all times?"

He shrugged, holding his torn arm in his other hand.

"... that's funny" she said, her lips warped into a wide smile that showed off her teeth "Waving that around so casually. Almost cute"

"I'm afraid that wasn't intentional. I don't think of myself as someone with a strong sense of humor. And the arm can be repaired anyway"

"Do you still want to continue?"

"I wouldn't mind a two-days break"

Ara laughed. Then she began to walk towards him.

* * *

Not long after, another wall collapsed. Oberon was fairly sure something in his back cracked as he flew through the concrete, landing in the empty road, under the rain. Now he was certain she was currently stronger than he had ever seen her be, physically at least. Throwing him so hard he smashed through a wall and landed a good distance further away from it? That was crazy. The water caused some sparks to erupt from his exposed cables, but nothing more. He kind of wished he could feel pain. That might have distracted him from his other thoughts. He didn't quite get up. He didn't feel like it. And it turned out he didn't even need to. Three of Ara's tails twirled around his remaining arm and lifted him from the road, just enough for his feet to not reach the ground.

"To think I had just taken a bath" she said, the heavy downpour drenching her clothes and fur "And now my clothes are soaked too. I might as well have stayed naked at this point"

"You know" he replied "When you use them like this, they seem to be tentacles rather than tails"

Ara's ears and eyebrows twitched. For a moment he thought he saw a vein pulse in her forehead.

"... what did you just say?"

"It was merely an observation"

"Take it back" she said as she grabbed his hand.

"I didn't mean it as an off..."

"Take it back!" she screamed as she smashed him down against the concrete, sending small pieces of the road flying here and there. His wrist cracked as it bent too much and in the wrong direction. Then he lifted him back up.

"... I take that back. Your tails are beautiful" he said before she could tear his other hand off. He wasn't even lying.

Ara's anger faded as quickly as it had arrived.

"You had me worried there. Eheh... anway, you're powered by magical energy, right?"

"... yes... ?"

"Great! I have no idea how your body works, but if it runs on magic I should be able to do something about it!"

"About... what?"

"About what you said earlier, silly" she replied. Her smile would have been pretty, if not for how unnaturally wide it was. That made it straight up... charming.

"What exactly?"

"You told me you don't feel pleasure"

"I don't, indeed. ... not the physical one, at least"

She giggled.

"Now let me help you... with... that..." she said as her face twisted, her mouth changing, growing longer and longer as she brought her jaws closer to his body. Her teeth then sank completely into his shoulder, false blood pouring down from the holes. Ara knew hardly anything of technology, but she knew that Eve's system had a strong magical componet. She once saw Aisha helping her fixing something with her own inner magical circuits, and she guessed Oberon's body was similar. So she poured her own magic straight into him, with a clear goal in mind and a vague idea of what she was doing. His sight got filled by warning messages and error windows for a brief moment, before going completely black. She then opened her mouth and pulled her jaws back as her face turned back from a fox snouth to an human profile.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

No answer. ... no answer... and, again, no answer. She looked closer and noticed that his eyes were... dull.

"... oh dear... hey... hey, Oberon, you're still there right?" she asked as she shook him by the shoulders.

Now that she took a better look, he really was in a terrible shape. Well, she had a lot of bruises too, a few of her bones were probably cracked too, she limped a bit and her shoulder had nearly gotten dislocated, but she'd be back in perfect shape within a few hours. Oberon, on the other hand... she hadn't gotten too carried away, did she?

"... my head..." he then said, light having returned to his eyes.

"Oh, great! Don't scare me like that, damn it. Now then!" she spoke, clapping her hands together, her tails waving happily behind her "Since we're done playing around, let's get down to it" she said as she pressed her index over his shirt -what was left of it- and sliced it open.

"Normally I'd take things a bit more slowly" she added as her tails released his arm at the same time she pushed him.

Oberon fell on his back, and Ara straddled him before he could try to get back up. Assuming he was even going to try, that is.

"But we played around for a bit too long" she said, laughing softly as he pulled his pants down, an eerie smile on her face "So let's skip to the main event"

Oberon felt... strange. His body was... warm. Warm? His mind... fuzzy. His head was spinning a bit. He looked up and confirmed with his eyes what his sense of touch had already told him. Ara grabbed his erect -why was he erect?- member -Eve insisted that he "had to look exactly like an human in every way", or so she told him-, placed it right against her entrance -where were her panties?- and then pushed herself all the way down, her warm flesh hitting against him. A lightning struck his mind.

"Oh? Oh?! Ahahahahah!" Ara laughed as she saw Oberon's expression twist the moment she had taken him inside herself "It worked, it worked!" she said happily.

"Wha..." he began to say. His face was red, but... that might have been due to all the damage his body had taken rather than because of something else. Maybe. Perhaps. Possibly. ... as if.

"I wasn't sure it would work" she nearly shouted, ecstatic "I've never done something like that before! But..." she added as she grinded him around inside herself, laughing not too softly as Oberon let out a grunt "... I can see that you're enjoying this. Unless you lied in the first place. Eheheh..."

Her face was flushed and her breath ragged, her tails waving softly around her as she began to move her hips, the thought of what they were doing making her as rapturous as the act itself. Her clothes were completely soaked, the sound of the countless raindrops thundering all around them, but she didnt' really care. Warmth began to spread within her body from where they were connected, ecstasy filling her nerves with every movement of her hips, but Oberon's face was just as great. She could almost see the pleasure running through his body, and she could definitively read it in his expression.

As for Oberon himself, he was... puzzled. His body, battered and broken as it was, was enjoying it. He was enjoying it, which only made him more confused. His sense of pleasure was supposed to be nonexistant, yet there it was. Ara's flesh tightly wrapped around him, sending that feeling he shouldn't be able to perceive straight into his brain. Had he had any need to breathe, his breathing would have been ragged. ... wait. He realized that he was, indeed, breathing. Not only that, but his breaths were heavy too. What... what happened?

Ara leaned back, changing the angle at which his member hit her insides, and resumed her up and down motion. The position she was in made it a bit harder to keep up the same pace from before, but now she was scratching a more sensitive part of herself, which more than made up for it. She placed two fingers over her tie and ran them down against her clothes, cutting them wide open, her claws grazing her skin, leaving an ever so faint red trail behind them as they reached her belly, both her half-sliced top and shirt falling to the sides, her severed tie hanging from her neck. As she kept moving her waist up and down, she brought an hand over her chest and started fondling herself. Her breath was quite ragged too.

Oberon's mind was a cacophony of thoughts, emotions and feelings. He liked Ara. There was something about her that just lured him in. He had tried to keep himself in check -with mixed results- ever since he realized it, but... was there any point in holding himself back in such a situation? Thinking was hard. He was feeling great. Her hot flesh coiling around him, her chest on display, her fingers rubbing her own breasts as raindrops trailed down along them, her hips senting shocks through his body and mind with every motion. He lifted his upper body a bit, using his remaining arm to support himself. He wanted a better look.

Ara changed position again, leaning forward once more, resting her hands on the ground next to his chest. Their faces were close, but not overly so. For one reason or another, the fact that he was panting more than she was made her ecstatic.

"Enjoying... yourself... ?" she asked, smiling her face bright red.

"You... might have... no idea how much... I am..." he replied. A part of him wondered what in the world he had just said, another part didn't care, and maybe he wasn't even really aware of having really said that in the first place.

His mind was being filled by her. All his thoughts were about her. Her soft, sensual moans filled his ears. Her drenched body filled his eyes. Her body heat was warming him up in spite of the cold rain. He wanted... more. Just as he thought that, Ara grabbed his head and pulled him in, their lips meeting. It took him a few moments to realize that she was pushing her oddly long tongue against his partially closed mouth, and once he realized it he opened his jaw and welcomed her in, their tongues dancing together, almost brawling, her saliva running down into his mouth. Her scent filled his nostrils, intoxicating him. She was the whole world. Nothing but her existed. So it made sense that she was the only thing he could perceive, and the only thing he could think of. Eventually, Ara broke their kiss and... bit his face, her fangs sinking deep into him. He felt something ethereal pouring inside of him again, but this time something also flowed in the opposite direction, getting sucked into her. Then she pulled her head back a bit.

"You're... " she began to say, but her voice somehow sounded faint "... so... adorable..." she spoke, right before... collapsing, falling forward, pushing Oberon's chest down as well.

What happened? He was confused. Why did it suddenly become so quiet? Then he realized.

She had stopped moving. He could still hear her breathing, her chest moving up and down rhythmically, but she wasn't moving. He remained still for a few seconds. Or were those minutes? Then the world expanded again, things he had completely forgotten about coming back into existence, the first of which was the sound of the rain, as if he had flipped back to a previous page of the book a book he was reading and saw an illustration he had forgotten.

It was raining. Right. Rain. He tried to get up, but her body was heavy. Or his limbs were weak. Maybe both. Eventually, he managed to push Ara's body aside. Then he broke their physical connection, an impossible sound echoing in his mind as he did so. Getting on his feet proved to be much harder than he had expected. His legs were unsteady. He tried to fix both their clothes up a bit. They were a mess. He did what he could with one unresponsive, shaky hand. Then he grabbed Ara and tried to carry her back inside the menagerie. He lost his grip twice, fell down three times, and even nearly fainted. His sight was getting worse. Everything was slowly blurring together.

The rain stopped falling on them. He looked up. They were inside. He wasn't sure when or how, but they were back within the walls. He let Ara down and crouched next to her. She was completely drenched. So was he, probably. Her face was red, her breathing slow and ragged. Her skin was cold. Freezing almost. Was she sweating? He couldn't tell. Too much water.

... he had to dry her up. There were... towels... in the... bathroom... ? Probably. He moved Ara to the hallway, sheltering her from the cold wind coming in through the shattered concrete. He hit his face against the wall a few times before finding the door. He could hardly make out anything, all he could see was a jumbled mess of colors without any real shape. He managed to carry her where he wanted, then turned around. The towels were... ?

... the... towels... were...

... they... the...

... where...

...

* * *

When Ara opened her eyes again, the rain had stopped. Or at the very least it was no longer deafening her. She took a long, deep breath. Then another. She felt... warm. Just warm. Pleasantly so. And quite dizzy too. She looked around. That was... what room was that? She didn't recognize it. There were no windows, and only one door, light coming from a somewhat small chandelier hanging from the middle of the ceiling. There were several machineries lying around though. She wasn't really sure what they were for, but they reminded her of an hospital. Actually, there were some pads attached to her.

She took a better look at herself. She was wearing only an hospital gown -well, that and the metal collar-, and had pads on her forehead, on the lower half of her back, on her hands and mostly on her legs. There were also three drips next to the bed, each linked to a needle going into her arm. Was that... really an hospital? She felt like that wasn't the case, for one reason or another, but it sure resembled one.

Only then she realized that her fur had disappeared. Her tails were gone too. Her fox ears were no longer there, while her human ones had come back. Her legs were no longer those of a fox. Her fangs had turned back to normal teeth. Her hair was black. And while there was no mirror she could use, she was sure that her eyes had returned to their original amber color too. She had gone back to normal. Which meant that quite some time had passed. She rememberd Eun telling her that past a certain point, the transformation would become too much of a burden for her body to maintain for long periods. Once the strain became too great, she would simply turn back. Though she had never transformed that much before, so she didn't really know how long she might have remained in that state. She knew she could stay with all nine tails out for quite a while, but she had gone past having simply tails and ears...

She thought about getting up, but then decided not to. There had to be a reason why they'd put her there, after all. ... probably. Instead, she tried to remember. Her memories were quite fuzzy. Up until the session with the bat, everything was clear. ... she acted a bit off there, didn't she? The thought made her worry. Anyway, after that session... there were images and sounds floating in her mind, but she was having an hard time putting them together. She... had an argument with Oberon, probably. A really bad one. About... about... what? Then... the rain... they went out in the rain... they... cuddled? No, that didn't make sense. They... she... him... t-they... oh... oh heavens, she...

"W... what have I done..." she almost whispered, her face falling in her hands as her memories came back more and more clearly, her cheeks turning bright red.

"... wait. Is Oberon alright?" she asked, though nobody was there.

Just as she was about to get out of the bed, however, the door opened.

"Oh, you're awake too" Eve commented as she walked in.

Ara didn't reply. When did Eve come back? No, wait. Were they still at the menagerie in the first place? She had never seen that room, but it's not like she knew everything about that place.

"E-Eve, what about Oberon?!"

"He's... mostly fine, I think" she replied as she sat down. There were no chairs though, so she rested her body on her two drones, which had enlarged themselves to better accomodate their owner. It'd been a long time since she last saw her sit on them. ... how were they called again?

"You really showed off, didn't you?" she said, sarcasm in her voice.

"I... w-well, that was... I... I'm sorry. I did... a lot of bad things back there"

"At least one less than you think"

"Eh?"

"I believe I'm at fault too" Eve spoke, without elaborating on her previous statement "Eun is the reason why you can change like that, and since I know her to a certain degree, I should have expected the transformation to bring out the... wilder side of your character after progressing that much"

Ara... wasn't really sure she agreed with that. Though she could see the point Eve was making. Actually, what did she mean with the "wilder side of her character"?

"Besides, we're old friends. I won't ask you to repay all the damage you two caused. Obeon was responsible for them too, after all"

"N-no, Oberon was just trying to defend himself there, really"

Eve smirked, as if she had just heard something unintentionally funny. That... worried Ara.

"Let's leave all of that aside. I've made several analysis already, and I believe I know most of what happened already" she said, leaving out the fact that the hidden cameras actually registered everything up until they moved outside "But there is one thing I'd like to hear from you. Ara, what did you do to Oberon? And did he do something to you?"

Ara's head exploded. Figuratively, that is.

"T-that's, well, I, actually, we, I-I mean, him, no, me, or..." she gibbered, her face taking on a bright shade of red.

"Ara" Eve interrupted her "Let me be more clear. Did you use magic on Oberon?"

"... now... now that you mention it..." she said, her cheeks going back to a somewhat more normal color "I... I did something, but... I don't remember what exactly... I think... oh, heavens, did I really..."

"What kind of magic?"

"I... I can't tell... it was... something... something which had to do with Eun... I think it was something we once briefly talked about, but... I can't quite recall what it was... how did you know?"

"While scanning both you and him, I found traces of your mana flowing within his circuits. Oddly enough, they don't seem to be dissipating over time. What really baffles me, however, is that I found traces of his mana inside of you. While they're all powered by magic, none of my servants can actually use it, so... how did that happen?"

"I... I think I might... t-the thing I did to him, I... I feel like I did the same thing twice but switching our parts the second time? Or... something like that... I'm... not sure... wait a moment" she then added "Why am I in this bed? I mean, I remember getting some... bruises and such, but considering the state I was in, I shouldn't have needed medical care"

"When I arrived you had mostly healed already, yes, but you also had a really bad fever, and seemed in pain. Since you weren't waking up, I also put you here to run some analysis on you while getting you back in shape. Since you remained asleep for quite a while, I used the drips to feed you some nutrients"

"To fe- how long have I been here?"

"If we account for the time it took me to get here as well, you've been sleeping for almost nine days"

"Nine days?! That's absurd!"

"I have to say though, I had never seen you grow fur besides for your ears and tails. Not to talk about your legs"

"W-well, that's because Eun used to keep things in check while she was still with me. Since she's no longer here, however, well... I knew my transformation might have progressed past the point I was used to, but... I really wasn't expecting something like that... say" she then added, partially to change the subject "You told me that Oberon is "mostly fine". What did you mean?"

"... you seem to have recovered well enough" Eve replied as she got up "Even completely I'd say. So why don't you come see for yourself?"

"... is it... really alright? I mean, after what I did..."

"Just come with me" she replied as she freed Ara from the drips and began to remove the pads from her skin. That last part actually took quite a while.

Ara got up and followed Eve. They left the room and entered a small, octagonal lobby with doors on four walls, lamps on the remaining four and a spiral staircase going both up and down right in the middle. For some reason, Ara was sure they were exactly beneath the room filled with papers in the menagerie, the one right below Eve's private room. What made her so sure, she couldn't tell. She'd never seen that part of the building before, after all.

"Oberon is there" Eve said as she pointed to one of the doors "That said, I have several things I have to take care off. I hope you won't mind if I don't accompany you" she added as she headed upstairs.

"H-hey, wait a... moment..." Ara protested, but her words fell on deaf ears.

So she turned to the door Eve had pointed to. ... it's not like Oberon wanted her gone from her sight. Or rather, she was fairly sure he wasn't the type to think something like that, but... she felt like it'd been really awkward to talk to him after what she had done. But she'd have to do that sooner or later anyway, so better now than then. She placed her hand on the knob and opened the door.

The room on the other side was... almost familiar, somehow. There were machineries all over the place, but completely different from the ones in the room she woke up in. Compared to those, these were covered with far more buttons and screens displaying countless words and images in quick successions. They were also the only source of light there was, aside from that coming in through the still open door. Several cables of varying sizes nearly covered the floor.

There was a single table in the middle of the room. She approached it. Walking was rather awkward there, with all the cables getting in the way. There, resting on what she couldn't really see as anything other than an operating table, was Oberon. His body was... open. It looked like someone had stopped in the middle of an autopsy. His chest was open, just like half of his face and both his legs, revealing what might be improperly described as his organs, his veins, his muscles and his bones. Though there wasn't a single gram of flesh there. Several tubes were connected to the inside of his body, as well as to his skin and even to one of his eyes, completely obscuring it. The arm which had been torn off was there, a few cables linking it to the rest of his body. He turned his head to he side.

"... what time is it?" he asked.

"... it's... I'm not sure... actually, I have no idea. ... it might be... morning? ... maybe"

"I see. Then, good morning Ara"

She wasn't sure how to react to that. On one hand, she was relieved to see that he still acted like normal. On the other, she had almost wanted him to be mad at her.

"How... are you?"

"I've had worse"

"... would you mind... being a bit more specific? If I might... ask..." she said.

Oberon then went from lying on the table to sitting on it. The sight was... somewhat unsettling.

"That's quite the poor dress you're wearing" he said, avoiding the question. With half of his space skinless, looking at him speak was almost creepy.

"... I... can't deny that" she said.

"I... lost consciousness at one point. What happened then?"

"You don't know?"

"I woke up only a short while ago. Was the mistress the one to set this up?" he asked as he indicated himself and all the cables he was linked to.

Ara remained silent for a few moments. A short while ago, he said, so... they probably woke up at around the same time? How odd. Then she told him pretty much what Eve had told her a few minutes earlier.

"... why didn't she put you in your replacement body while fixing this one though?"

"Some of my files have been altered, probably because of the... thing you did" he replied as his gaze briefly moved from one monitor to another before going back to Ara "The mistress probably left me here to avoid having some of them leak to the other body's system"

"Would that... be possible?"

"Personally, I don't think so. But I also thought you couldn't rewrite part of my code like that, and here I am. Besides, the mistress if far more knowledgeable than me in this field. If she left me in this body, that was most likely the right choice"

"I see..."

"Is there... I'm sorry for asking this, but... is there anything... wrong with you? I mean, aside from... the... w... wounds..." she asked, her gaze dropping lower and lower with every word. The question was much more specific in her mind, but just thinking about that made her blush.

"Well, there does seem to be at least one thing that has changed in my perceptions" he replied. He was fairly sure he knew what Ara was talking about, for one reason or another, but decided to not be too specific himself.

What followed was silence, one so long it almost became comical at one point.

"... Ara" Oberon eventually spoke, after what seemed to be hours "could I ask you a favor?"

"Eh? O-of course! Anything"

"The doors in the lobby you just walked through. One of them leads to my room. The book I was reading is there. Would you bring it to me? I'm not sure how long I have to stay here for and I could use something to distract myself in the meantime, but I can't get it myself at the moment" he said as he tugged lightly at the cables.

"S... sure"

She turned around and walked out. The conversation turned out to be... much more normal than she had expected? She was glad that he didn't seem to mind what happened at all, but on the other hand that made her feel even more guilty. She walked to one of the two other doors in the lobby and placed her hand on the knob. Thinking about it, she had never seen his room. She wasn't even really sure he had one. Though, when she tried to open it, the door wouldn't budge. Maybe she just picked the wrong one. So she headed to the last one, which did turn out to not be locked. ... the book he was reading, uh? She did ask him what it was about once, but his response confused her. She was... curious. And somewhat agitated.

She opened the door and stepped in.


	25. Not Quite Back to Normality

**Not Quite Back to Normality  
**

Ara ran her hand over the wall right next to the door for a moment or so before finding a switch. She turned it and several wall lamps lighted up. Then she closed the door behind her and looked around. The first thing she thought was that the right room was the locked one, because what she stepped into was more of a small library. The ceiling was low, definitively less than two and a half meters high, and the only things there aside from the lamps were a chair, a small writing desk, a drawer and several bookshelves which could never fit through the door. But then she noticed that the books were all completely white, and none of them had anything written on the side. Just like the one she always saw Oberon reading.

More than half of the shelves were empty, with all the books being in those closest to the wall to the left. The one between the last full bookshelf and the first empty one had only a few volumes inside. She walked to one of the filled shelves. Upon closer look, the books weren't exactly the same. They were all white and with nothing written on the outside, yes, but the size and amount of pages varied, albeith not that much. So she took one at random and opened it. On the first page was written what should by all means have been on the cover, such as the title and the author's name. Mostly the title though. There was also a date written by hand on the back of the cover. She skimmed through the pages. Apparently that was a manual about making perfumes. It probably had to do with the things they sold there. Here and there there were notes, and some parts were underlined. On the very last page was annotated another date.

"... who even sells books like this? You can't even tell what they're about without opening them" she wondered as she put it back in place.

She then pulled out another and flipped through the pages. That seemed to be more of a biology book, and she recognized the animal it was about. It was that sort of mixture between a bird and a lizard, the one that let out electricity. Her face grew flushed as the memories of that session came back to her mind. She closed the book immediatly.

"So... are these all related to his work here?" she wondered out loud as the tried another volume "... guess not" she answered herself. That book was simply narrative, a sort of epic fantasy. There were quite a few annotations and underlined parts there as well, which surprised her.

There were two dates annotated there too. Out of curiosity, she compared the days written at the beginning and at the end of several books. One of them even turned out to be a notebook full of hand-drawn sketches, and she wondered if Oberon had drawn them himself. That said, she confirmed that the volumes were all in order, from oldest to newest. She guessed he wrote down both the day he started reading a book and the day he finished it on them. Then she realized that he probably hadn't been reading just a single book since she arrived there. Or at least, that seemed unlikely, since she's been there for way over a month, and from what she saw it didn't take him that long to finish a book. It probably should have come to her mind sooner.

Her curiosity taking over her, she decided to check out the last books on the half empty shelf. The one he was reading at the moment was probably the very last one, but she didn't go for that one. She picked up another volume instead and opened it. It was a guide on how to tend to... flowers. Quite... unexpected, but also not really surprising at that point. She checked the dates, and confirmed that he had both started and finished that one after her arrival. She tried the next one. A book about chess. She chuckled a bit, mainly because she had actually red that one too. Then she picked up another one. And the title written on the first page sounded... familiar.

"In-depth analysis of the responses given to a wide array of stimulus by a restrained source... I... I think Oberon said something along these lines that time I asked him what he was reading"

She checked the first annotation. She was fairly sure that was just a few days before her session with the... plant, which sort of confirmed that was what he was reading at the time. She turned to the next page, and her face immediatly turned red.

"W-wha..."

Slowly, she turned page after page, with half of her mind wondering why she hadn't dropped the book already.

"D... do they even... sell these things... a-a-and, wait, he... he was reading... this... ?!"

The book was a manual about bondage, or at least that's how she'd have described it. The second page was a large picture of a bound woman, followed by an accurate description of the method used to restrain her, the safety measures, and even a description of the supposed reactions to several kind of... stimulations given while in that situation. After the description, which took up several pages, was another picture, followed by another detailed commentary on it, the scheme repeating itself over and over. And for one reason or another, that book too was full of hand-written annotations.

She slammed it shut halfway through it, so embarassed that her breath had became ragged. She could feel her heartbeat echoing in her ears, the room providing no sounds to cover it with. She realized that she had gotten a bit wet, which made her face grow even redder. To make things worse, the fact reminded her that she was wearing nothing beneath that hospital gown. Which meant no underwear either.

"C-calm down, breath, breath... calm... ok... that's it, relax... alright..." she told herself.

Yeah, there was nothing to worry about. She had found a bit of everything in those shelves, from gardening to high fantasy fiction to cooking books to chess tournament records to... well... that. He just liked to read a lot of different things. Right, just that. Nothing more, nothing less. She took another brief moment to further calm herself down, then grabbed the very last book in the shelf. The first thing she did was check the last page. There was no date written there, which meant he hadn't yet finished reading it. Well, assuming that she was right about what those dates meant, but she was fairly sure she wasn't mistaken about that. She turned around and headed to the door, but stopped a couple of steps before reaching it. Her gaze fell on the book. She grabbed the cover and almost moved it to the side, but then stopped. A minute or so went by, before she finally walked back to Oberon.

He was still sitting there. not like he could go that far with all those cables plugged in though. With her gaze fixed to the floor in an attempt to hide her still red cheeks, she handed him the book.

"T... this one, right?"

"... yes" he replied as he took it from her and quickly scrolled through the pages "Thanks"

Then, silence. Oberon was... sort of expecting a question, or maybe even more than one. What question exactly, he wasn't sure himself. Given how long it had taken her to come back, however, he was certain she had taken a look at some of those books. He wondered if he had actually sent her there hoping for that to happen. Ara, on her part, did want to ask him something, but she was scared of mentioning that one particular book. That would have been... embarassing.

"I... I'll go... somewhere... upstairs... now... I... think..." she eventually said.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to prepare your meals for the time being"

"Don't worry, I can cook something by myself. ... kind of"

Then she turned around and left, closing the door behind her.

 _... what am I doing?_ he wondered as he lied back down.

He looked for the page he had reached the last time, found it and began reading. The instructions written there were pleasantly detailed, though he really didn't think he'd ever put them to use. Then he remembered that he had nothing to write with.

* * *

As she had guessed, the ectagonal lobby was beneath the room filled with papers. Ara looked at the stairs going up, wondering if Eve was in her room. Rather than checking, she decided to head to her own instead. She really wanted to put on some actual clothes. As she walked, she noticed that the damage to the menagerie had all been repaired already. And that it truly was morning, or early in the afternoon at worst. She went upstairs and then to her room. As she opened the door, two things immediatly entered her vision. One was Obe, standing right next to the bed, still with Oberon's shirt on. ... thinking about it, she had left him in the bathroom. How did he end up there? Eve had probably moved him. The second one was a chastity belt.

"... oh, come on..." she groaned as she walked up to it and took it in her hands.

Sighing, Ara put it on, the cold metal feeling familiar on her skin. That was... sort of depressing, in a way. The fact that she wore it so readily, that is. Then she opened her wardrobe and took out her usual outfit, the mostly white and orange one with a large coat, a miniskirt and the pantyhose. She took her time putting all of that on, then told Obe to hide inside the wardrobe, maybe simply out of habit, before closing it. Then she headed to the kitchen and started cooking something. The results weren't that bad, at least for her. She sat down but, just as she was about to eat, Eve walked in, followed by Ferdinand carrying a considerable pile of papers. He placed them down on the table in front of his mistress as she took a seat then left.

"... hi... ?"

"So, how did it go?" Eve asked as she started reading the documents, writing down something on them from time to time.

"Do you mean with Oberon? Well, we... talked"

"Did you two sort things out?"

"I... guess? Maybe... probably... not..."

"... what exactly did you talk about?"

In response, Ara summarized their conversation to her, leaving out the part about the bondage book. Once she had finished, Eve rolled her eyes back.

"Are you joking? No, of course you aren't. Just... whatever" she almost sighed in response.

What she was so upset about, Ara wasn't sure.

"Anyway, I'll finish with Oberon tonight, then I'll leave. You two have really messed up my schedule"

"Sorry" she replied, lowering her gaze a bit.

The rest of the day went by... slowly. And uneventfully. Ara walked around a bit to see if the menagerie had really been fully repaired -it had- and after that she spent most of her time playing chess against herself. The sun set, and Ara made dinner. At first she was going to make enough just for herself, but then a sudden thought crossed her mind and she prepared for two instead. Then she wondered if what she had just done wasn't actually really stupid. Oberon didn't really need to eat, and while he could taste things, her food didn't really compare to the one he made himself. Throwing it away would have been a waste though, so she just ate her part and left the rest in the fridge, planning to eat it for breakfast the next day. Then she looked around to see if she could find Eve, but with no results. She avoided going down into the octagonal room though. So she simply went to sleep.

* * *

As usual, she woke up rather late. Getting off the bed took her a good fifteen minutes, and another thirty or so to go to the bathroom, wash herself, come back and get dressed. Then she headed downstairs. She found Oberon in the kitchen, making breakfast.

"Good morning, Ara"

"Ah, g-good morning... are you... alright?"

"Mostly. The mistress said some of my files are still altered, but since it's nothing that prevents me from working here she said she'd look further into it at a later date"

"She's left already?"

"Before sunrise"

_Well, she did say she would._

"... say, weren't there some leftovers from yesterday?" she asked after not finding them where they were supposed to be.

"I ate them. I think you could use some more lessons"

"I'm perfectly aware of that" she said back, a faint hint of anger, or maybe simply annoyance, in her voice.

A brief silence while Ara took a seat.

"By any chance" he then asked "Did you... do you feel like working today?"

"Eh? Ah, no, I mean... right, I still owe Eve quite a lot of money, but... is it really a good idea? After what... happened..."

"There isn't much left for you to pay off" he replied "And we can space out your sessions to give you enough time to go back to normal to avoid another... incident. Your transformation didn't really get out of control until you got to seven or eight tails, right?"

"That... might work, yes..."

"So?"

"So... after... lunch?" she replied. On one hand, the thought of going back to that work didn't thrill her. On the other, she really was close to getting over her debt. And a part of her didn't really hate the job either. Her cheeks took on an ever so faint shade of red as the last thought crossed her mind.

"After lunch" Oberon repeated.

He had almost asked her if she had found the bottle with her own scent somewhere. It wasn't in his pocket when he woke up, and he didn't find it when he looked for it. He was... somewhat worried. Once Ara had finished eating, she went out and walked in circles around the menagerie for three or so hours, lost in her thoughts until Oberon called her back in for lunch. Maybe because the topic was brought up earlier, they had another culinary lesson. After the meal, they both headed to the elevator. The fact that everything had gone back to normal -as normal as that might have been- was sort of a relief. That said, Ara actually had an hard time looking Oberon in the eyes. That morning she asked him to unlock the belt and things... excalated was one thing, but she literally forced herself on him the last time, and memories of both events would occasionally flash in her mind when she looked at his face. Oberon was in a similar situation too, actually, and maybe exactly because of that, neither seemed to notice the other's uneasiness. Well, he was also better at hiding it than her, but still.

The elevator stopped. Or rather, it had stopped since quite a while, since they were headed to the second underground level and getting there didn't take long, but for one reason or another it took at least a couple of minutes for them to stepp out and head to the room with a three on its door. Aside from the usual table and chair, the antechamber was full of glass jars. Most were empty, but a few seemed to be filled with a transparent substance which vaguely reminded her of jam. Vaguely.

"So, uh... what do we have... there?" Ara asked as she vaguely pointed to the door.

"It's similar to a caterpillar. With several appendages"

"That... doesn't sound good"

Oberon then placed a key on the table and turned around. Maybe it was just her impression, but it seemed a bit odd that he had simply left it there rather than handing it to her. Anyway, she took it, unlocked the chastity belt and placed both on the table. The pantyhose made the process somewhat troublesome, but it also made her feel... not as breezy. And it wasn't the first time she did that either, actually, she was kind of used to it, which was a whole other kind of problem in a certain way. Then they headed into the dome. The environment there resembled a normal forest, except for one simple detail. There weren't many leaves, but the few that were there were huge. The smallest ones were around half as large as Ara, while the biggest one were almost twice her size. Because of that, it was hard to see anything.

She took a moment to look around anyway then, as Oberon began to walk forward, she followed him, neither of them saying anything. They kept going for quite a while, until they reached a surprisingly wide glade. Ara's soon-to-be partner was there, curled up against a tree. Upon seeing them it uncoiled itself, while Oberon moved to the opposite end of the clearing and sat down. The creature moved a bit closer to Ara while still remaining as close as possible to the trees, occasionally hiding behind the lower leaves. Though they weren't enough to cover its whole body. It was... way bigger than she had expected.

It was so wide she couldn't encircle it with her arms, and while she couldn't see its whole length, she felt like it was at least a dozen meters long. It also looked soft though. Chubby even. It was mostly green with a few colored stripes here and there, as well as a few black circles on its sides. Its eyes -it seemed that it had just two of them- were oddly large, around as much as Ara's whole head, but combined with its roundness they somehow made it look kind of cute. Or almost cute, at least. She wasn't sure it had a mouth, she couldn't really see one at least, and she also couldn't see any appendage on its body. She guessed they were on its abdomen, since that was the part of its body she could see less of at the moment. The creature kept approaching, but slowly. Too slowly, even. Ten minutes later, it still hadn't reached Ara, and by the way it kept hiding behind every other leaf it found on its path she guessed it wasn't simply because it was slow. Maybe it was scared? Well, it didn't really look like a predator, quite the contrary, but given the size difference, that much caution seemed a bit excessive to her.

Five more minutes, and Ara had gone from being somewhat nervous to being bored. After another five minutes -which felt like thirty- of excruciatingly slow approaching, the creature lifted its head above the ground, not by much but still enough for a tentacle to appear from underneath it. The caterpillar stopped as the appendage, around as large as her arms but way longer, carefully approached her. It poked her cheek once, twice, three times. It was as soft as it looked like, but also covered by a thin, transparent layer of something she really didn't want to call mucus. It was the same thing she saw in the jars, thinking about it. Upon seeing her lack of aggressive reactions, the creature approached faster, and upon getting close enough it raised the first part of its body, arching it in an s shape. Its now exposed abdomen was indeed covered in several appendages, a few of them being just like the one that poked her face, a couple being even larger but noticeably shorter, and most being around as thin as her thumbs and half as long as her arms. She took a step forward, but as she did so the creature moved back a bit. She noticed that its face had turned a bit... red.

... for real? It was shy?

 _... this is... surprisingly awkward..._ she thought.

Ara then stood still, which apparently encouraged the caterpillar to move closer again, until its head loomed over Ara while its body was at around half a meter from her. She looked up, and the creature slowly pushed its head against hers, before... rubbing itself against her cheek. That was sweet. It would have been much sweeter without the see-through jelly covering its body though, some of it sticking to her face. Then she heard it... smell her? She wasn't exactly sure since she couldn't really see nostrills anywhere on its body, but it sounded like it was smelling her. And then the two largest tentacles slowly reached for her waist, resting on the lower half of her back, and began to pull her in, though they put so little strength into it she felt like she could have simply stood still and they wouldn't even make her flinch. But since she knew what she was there for, she walked up to it instead. Stopping before coming into contact with the sea of smaller appendages though.

Or that was the plan, but then the caterpillar suddenly put more force into its pull. Taken by surprise, Ara found herself pushed against the soft but slimy belly of the creature. Its tentacles quickly wrapped around her arms, legs and chests, further pulling her in and holding her in place, but thankfully they left her head alone. Or rather, the caterpillar seemed to be aware that she needed to breathe and left the area around her mouth empty to not hinder her respiration. That was a relief.

Being that close and getting covered by it, she also noticed that the substance covering its body was stickier than she had first guessed. It also seemed to slide right underneath her clothes without dampening them at all, as if they were waterproof. And while the chubby flesh of the creature was warm, the goo wasn't, actually, it was sending chills down her spine. It wasn't freezing, far from it, but the difference in temperature was enough to give her goosebumps after being suddenly covered by it. Then, several of the smaller tentacles too began to wrap around her, to the point she couldn't even move her fingers anymore, while some began to slither underneath both her shirt and her skirt.

She was rather glad that she had kept her coat on, since it was large enough to completely cover her. Not like Oberon wouldn't know what was happening anyway, but the thought of him not seeing what was going on made the whole thing just a bit less embarassing.

The appendages then began to wrap around her breasts, firmly enveloping them, and soon after snuck underneath her bra as well, reaching her nipples. At the same time, several other tentacles were crawling inside her pantyhose, threatening to tear it at any moment. The jelly secreting from them kept sliding down along her legs, but since it seemed unable to permeate the nylon it began to slowly pile up on the bottom, around her feet. That was actually a surprisingly nice feeling, though her mind was quickly made to focus elsewhere as the jointless limbs moved over her privates, hitting her clit several times in the process. The sudden stimulation made her almost shriek, her face turning bright red as the creature kept coiling more and more tentacles around her body. That said, the stimulation she was getting seemed more accidental than anything, since neither her nipples nor her privates were really getting any more focus than the rest of her body, except for her head which was being left alone.

As mild as the pleasure was, however, it's not like she wasn't feeling it, and as minutes went by one after the other the sensation began to pile up, her limbs beginning to go numb at the same time. For a moment she worried that it was holding her too tightly, hindering the blood flow, but she really couldn't feel that much strength in its grasp, so it was probably something else. Maybe the jelly covering its body. And Oberon would have interneved anyway were things going wrong. The thought distracted her from the pleasure, if only for a brief while, and as her breath began to grow somewhat ragged she saw the creature move its head behind her back, staring at her from upside down.

She let out a surprised moan when a tentacle suddenly slid inside of her and started crawling around, though smooth as it was, moving softly and not really hitting any sensitive spot, it actually wasn't that much of a stimulus. The same was only half true for the other limbs that kept occasionally bumping against her clit, and to a degree the same went for her nipples. The pleasure kept piling up, but slowly enough to allow her to keep her breathing mostly regular, her teeth ready to dig into her lips at any moment. She bit herself just as another tentacle slid within her, pushing against her inner walls as it slithered forward, the pleasure expanding from within her as a warm wave, slowly reaching all the way to her toes and fingertips, her breath momentarily halted as she savored the feeling, the pain from her lips giving the whole thing that little something more she needed to reach her climax, the creature's hold being the main reason why her back was not even slightly arched. The pleasure then slowly vanished as her lungs started taking in air again.

The caterpillar, on its part, hadn't really stopped, and having just had an orgasm, tender as it was, Ara was still sensitive, which made it harder to keep her voice in check. Then she let out something halfway between a moan and a scream when something suddenly probed her rear. Thankfully it was just a single, small tentacle which went less than a finger's length inside, but still.

"W-w-wait, I'm not r-ready for that!" she nearly shouted.

And she was mostly right, since there hadn't really been any preparation for anal for that session and suddenly shoving something too large inside would have been a terrible, terrible idea. Luckily, the caterpillar didn't force its limb further inside, simply moving it around a bit instead, maybe because of the pressure it felt against its single appendage. As for Ara, while that feeling by itself wasn't too nice -nor bad, actually, it was a relatively weak stimulus- it somehow enhanced all the other feelings, making the pleasure grow stronger. Maybe she had started sweating, but since she was pretty much completely covered in the sticky jelly by that point it was hard to tell. With her temperature rising as the stimulations continued, that goo felt even colder than before, giving her a few goosebumps. She instinctively tried to grab her partner's body as her breath grew less and less regular. And by the sound of it, her pantyhose had just given up, a torn opening on the upper thigh and extending all the way to her entrance.

Then, suddenly, all the tentacles over, around and even inside her privates moved away, giving a sudden but brief burst of pleasure as they slid back. Right after, something large was placed against her now exposed skin, between her legs, something which vaguely felt like a mouth. She tried to look down, but in her current situation and position she couldn't really see anything below her breasts, her sight blocked by a combination of the caterpillar's body, its tentacles and herself. What she guessed was an open-ended tentacle placed itself right against her wet entrance, and apparently it had a few protuberances around its head since a few small tentacles wrapped around her waist and thighs to properly hold the bigger one in place. Then the large appendage opened, a bit like a mouth just as she had guessed, and from within another, smaller -but not too much- tentacle entered Ara, making her moan a bit. After that, however, nothing really happened for a short while.

It was only after a couple or so of minutes, however, that she felt something large moving within the tentacle, which also meant it was entering her. Her inner walls got slowly but firmly pushed open by the foreign object being pushed inside of her, sending both jolts of pleasure and a bit of pain to her brain. Whatever it was that was moving within the tentacle, it eventually reached its end, being expelled straight inside of Ara. The appendage then carefully pushed it in more, sending it just a bit deeper inside of her. For a moment she feared it would reach her cervix, but thankfully it stopped before getting that far. It felt... not quite solid, but not really liquid either. The caterpillar then pulled itself back, but didn't quite let go of Ara. The mild stimulation on her nipples and rear continued, though those alone were enough to keep her aroused but far from sufficent to get her off. In the meanwhile, the thing inside of her seemed to expand a bit, which actually worried her.

After a good twenty or so minutes of what could probably be considered an odd form of cuddling, the caterpillar released Ara and backed away a bit, just enough for it to rub its... cheeks? Against her face a couple of times. Not really sure about what to do, she tried to pat its head, and it seemed to like it. Then it slowly turned around and moved back to the spot he was in when they arrived and rolled over itself, leaving its head out to look at her. Ara fell down, her limbs still feeling numb. Getting back up was probably going to be rather hard.

"... that was... not too bad, I guess... ?"

Well, aside from the fact that she was covered in sticky, cold jelly. And she felt, well, full, though in a different way compared to the other sessions. It was like there was an actual object inside of her rather than some seed with a really odd consistency, something relatively large but not too heavy. It was... somewhere between unpleasant and painful, leaning more to the former, but for some weird reason it also felt vaguely nice. Vaguely. Oh, and her clothes were basically all intact, with only her pantyhose being torn, which was a plus.

"How are you feeling?" Oberon asked from behind her.

"Well... how do I say this..." she replied "... it's like I have a weight on my stomach. ... no, below that, and... it feels a bit... weird?"

After hearing that, he walked in front of her, got on his knees and unceremoniously placed an hand over the lower part of her belly. In response Ara simply stared at him, confused.

"This is quite rare, it laid an egg"

She froze.

"... w... wh... it did what?!"

"It laid an egg. Within you. It's strongly advisable to take it out as soon as possible. Can you push it out?" he asked.

He already knew the answer though. The egg slid in easily while the shell was still more liquid than solid, aided by the mucus acting as lubrificant and by the caterpillar's appendage made specifically to push the egg out, but after being laid the shell would expand a bit before hardening, but only after attaching to its surrounding like a glue. Worst case was that he'd need to perform a surgery to take it out, but as long as they acted within two or three hours to remove it there should be no need to resort to that.

"If I c-can p- o-of course I can't! And why would a male lay an egg?! Is that thing actually a female?!"

"The full explanation would be rather long but no, it's a male" he replied as he got back up "Can you stand?" he then asked.

"N... not quite..."

Oberon then helped her get on her feet, without mentioning the fact that her skirt got pushed up during the session leaving her privates almost completely exposed, and lent her his shoulder as they headed back. That felt odd, to say the least. It's not that Ara disliked that, actually, compared to the way he usually carried her in his arms whenever she couldn't walk by herself that sort of made her feel more at ease, but the sudden change confused her. She actually thought of a few possible reasons why he did that, but couldn't bring herself to ask. That, and walking while the lower end of her pantyhose was literally filled with jelly was rather awkward. When they reached the antechamber he helped her sit on the table, handed her a towel and, while she wiped some of the jelly off her skin -not that easy since it was all underneath her clothes and she had no intention of stripping- he opened a drawen hidden underneath the table, pulling a... thing out of it.

"... that's... what I think it is, isn't it?"

"Probably" he replied.

In his hand was a steel instrument similar to a pair of tweezers, though it had three arms instead of two and each ended with what seemed to be a sort of padded suction cup. There were also a couple of small cranks at the base of the tool. He turned one a few times, the arms closing in on each other as he did so. Then he walked back in front of her.

"You... you're not gonna... "

"We have to take it out, and this is the simplest way"

"Isn't there some... alternative?"

"There actually are, but they're not readily aviable at the moment"

"I... I see..."

"I have to ask you to..." he then began to say, Ara's cheeks growing redder with every word.

"R-right, I... I understand..." she replied as she slowly opened her legs.

That was beyond embarassing. And awkward. And uncomfortable. And probably stupid too. She had a giant caterpillar's egg inside of her, damn it. The mere thought was crazy, and the fact that it was a reality was absurd. Though now that she looked at Oberon, he seemed a bit uneasy too. Maybe it was just her impression though.

"You're still wet" he commented as he pressed the tips of the tweezers-like instrument against her entrance "That should help"

"P-please, keep that to yourself..." she replied, her cheeks even redder than before.

"... I apologize. ... I suggest lying down, it should make this easier" he added, his gaze being... somewhere, she wasn't sure where.

Ara did as asked, her back resting on the not overly comfortable table while her legs were mostly hanging in the air. She wasn't sure what to do with her arms. The cold steel then slid inside slowly but easily, sending chills up her spine.

"I... is this the first time... you do this?"

"Yes"

_That's... both relieving and worrying..._

Oberon then slid an hand underneath her shirt, placing it over her belly and moving it around a bit before finding exactly where the small bulge was. Having confirmed its position, he pushed the tweezers further inside, until he felt them bump against the egg. He then turned one of the cranks again, spreading the instrument's arms apart. Ara felt her inner walls being forcefully pushed apart again. What little pleasure that sent to her brain, however, was drowned in the sea of embarassment. After having adjusted the tweezers, Oberon pushed them forward again, albeith only a bit, enough for the suction cups to rest against the shell. He then turned the other crank a bit. One way or another, that made the cups latch to the egg.

"Are... are you sure you know how to do this?"

"Relax. If you tense your body up this will be harder"

Truth be told, he wasn't too calm himself, but he did his best not to show it. Which confused Ara. He looked as composed as ever, so why did she feel like he was a bit agitated? As for Oberon himself, he loathed the fact that he was getting used to not being as calm as he was supposed to be when near Ara.

"I'll start removing it now. It might hurt at first, but that shouldn't last long"

"O... ok" she replied as she closed her eyes, bracing herself for whatever was about to happen but also because she simply couldn't bear to look.

He then moved the tweezers back a bit, the suction cups trying to drag the egg along, but it seemed to be stuck. Ara felt her insides being pulled as Oberon gradually put more strength into it, but the shell wasn't budging. When he turned the instrument around a bit, both clockwise and counterclockwise, she closed her mouth to avoid making any sounds, but the feeling wasn't exactly pleasant. As more force was applied, it began to hurt, but the egg had barely moved.

"We're almost there. Get ready" he said.

After hearing that, Ara almost instinctively moved her hands to the edge of the table to hold on to it, not noticing that her limbs weren't really numb anymore. It hurt, and it was getting more intense, even overly so, until something snapped. The egg finally moved, but it was as if it had dragged something it shouldn't have with her. She let out half of a loud scream before forcefully shutting her own mouth, the sudden jolt of pain making all her muscles tense up. Her eyes began to tear up, her breath broken, but... the feeling began to vanish surprisingly quickly. Oberon had stopped moving, and the two of them stayed relatively still for a few minutes. He was right, the pain didn't last long, but the thought of having to go through that again scared her.

"The worst part is over" he said then, as if he could read her thoughts "From here on it will be much easier"

"I... I really hope so..."

Slowly, gently, he resumed the operation, pulling the tweezers out. Ara had braced herself for more pain, which is why the sudden moan coming from her lips took her completely by surprise as the egg scratched her insides in an oddly pleasant way. Her face became as flushed as it could possibly get upon realizing that it felt... good.

"W-wait!" she shouted, and Oberon did indeed stop.

"Is something wrong?"

"O-of course! What was... why did it..." she almost screamed, without managing to form an actual question. And while not looking at him. She was too embarassed to do that.

"The egg has detached from your flesh, now I just have to drag it out. Don't worry, it didn't injure you. The collar would have already sent a warning otherwise"

That's... not really what she meant. Well, what he said was reassuing, sure, but it wasn't the point.

"This won't take too long, try to bear with it"

She didn't really reply to that, instead getting ready for him to start again. And so he did, the shell scaping against her inner walls, sending jolts and shivers through her whole body, pleasure spreading through her. Ara held her mouth shut, absolutely refusing to let out any sort of sound, while doing her best to remain still, her back arching ever so slightly. Sure, she had expected that to be just painful and was sort of relieved that it turned out to be like that only at the beginning, but... the fact that it had turned pleasureable instead didn't just embarass her, it made her straight up uncomfortable. It's not like she'd rather have the pain, granted, especially because that hurt really badly, but not feeling anything at all would have been less awkward. ... did they have any sort of anesthetic there? It was too late to ask anyway. The egg, on its part, didn't seem to care about any of that, relentlessy scratching her from withing as Oberon slowly pulled it out. Her breathing grew more and more irregular. How long had it been since they started? It surely couldn't have been more than a ten or so minutes, but if felt like an hour.

To make things worse, the egg left an itching sensation in its wake, which made the pleasure stronger. And the feeling of Oberon's hand over her skin, following the egg as it was being dragged out, somehow made the whole thing feel even better. Or worse, depending on how she was looking at it. Sweat was running down along her skin, at least where she had already wiped the jelly away, the combination of the two making her skin glitter. Ara went from holding her mouth shut to biting her lips as the shell ran against her sweet spots, jolts running through her system. Oberon pushed her down a bit with his hand to make sure she wouldn't move around too much, which in turn furtherly enhanced the pleasure.

Then, suddenly, he began to twist the tweezers around again to ease the extraction, making her lose control over her voice, the sudden change in stimulation making her contract her muscles as a moan escaped her lips. She looked at the wall on the opposite side of the room to avoid any possible eye contact with Oberon, the sheer embarassment killing her. She felt hot, which in turn made the goo on her skin feel even colder. She was sweating, her skin glistering under the light. She managed to bring her voice back inside her throath, but her breathing was irreparably broken.

Oberon had stopped for a moment when her muscles contracted, but as they began to relax a bit he started pulling again, the uncomfortable pleasure once again assaulting her. She could feel that the egg was almost out and forced her teeth away from her lips. That made it harder to not let her voice out, but the thought of having an orgasm from something like that simply felt wrong. ... well, more wrong than all the other things which had made her have an orgasm in the past weeks at least. Oberon kept slowly pulling the foreign object out, until the pleasure surging through her body passed the line. Her body tensed up again, her back arching as warmness spreaded through her, her lips unable to stop a weak but long moan to escape, but the lack of pain made the feeling die out before it could reach its peak. It was a bit like a thirsty person getting to drink only a glass of water instead of a whole bottle. It didn't really feel bad, quite the opposite, but it also left her frustrated rather than satisfied.

And at long last, Ara felt the egg finally leaving her body. Her insides, however, were awkwardly tingly, and her spoiled orgasm only made it worse. In retrospection, not biting her lips might have been a really bad idea. The sound of the belt locking around her waist made her kind of regret that, but she tried not to think about it.

"We're done" Oberon said.

Upon hearing that the egg truly was no longer inside of her Ara relaxed, no longer trying to control her irregular, ragged breaths. Her face was as red as it could get.

"How do you feel?"

_Still gaping_

"Not... too... great..." she replied as she closed her legs and weakly used her coat to cover herself up a bit. Her gaze was still on the wall.

Oberon placed the egg... somewhere, she heard him opening what probably was a drawer or something like that but she wasn't looking, then went back to the table and placed down the instrument he had used. He took another few moments to make sure he was as calm as he was meant to be, her panting distracting him in the worst possible way he could think of, then looked at her. There was something off, he had already noticed during the session.

"Ara. Why are you completely normal?"

"... what do you mean?" she asked back.

"You didn't grow a single tail, and even your eyes and hair are still of their normal color. It seems... odd"

Now that he mentioned it, he was right, she still had no tails. Granted, it's not like she would just go and grow three or four in the blink of an eye, but the fact that there wasn't even one was weird. She raised her back, sitting on the table, took her hair in her hands and stared at it. Black. Perfectly black. It was true. She was completely normal. Which wasn't normal at all. In truth, her eyes did turn red during the... extraction, but Oberon never looked at her face during that and missed it. And even if he did try, her face was turned the other way for most of it so he most likely wouldn't have saw it anyway.

"I... I have no... " she began to say, but her voice died out when she looked at Oberon.

What she saw made no sense. She blinked several times, eventually even rubbing her eyes. But no. What she saw was still there.

"What's wrong?" he asked, as she was clearly shocked.

"You... you're... " she began to say, unable to properly put a sentence together.

Because there were shades of blue in his normally black hair, and the dark red of his eyes had turned into a vibrant azure.


	26. The End Approaches

**The End Approaches  
**

"Your eyes... they... they turned blue..."

"... what?"

"I swear, they're azure now" she repeated, possibly more confused than Oberon himself was.

That didn't make sense. Why would his eyes change color? That shouldn't have been possible. But she also had no reason to lie about that, especially not so out of the blue. Both him and Ara immediatly thought about what happened under the rain, that thing he did to him but which neither of them could really remember. From there, several different guesses drifted into their minds, some wilder than others.

"... let's just head back up" he then said as he headed to the door.

Since she didn't really have any better idea herself, Ara followed him all the way to the elevator. ... had it always been that hot inside there? As they moved upwards, she found herself stealing glances at him rather often. Maybe it was just her impression, but she felt like the tingling between her legs -and inside of her- had gotten worse. At one point Oberon took half a step to the side, adding a tiny bit of distance between them. Then, the doors opened.

"I... I thin I'll take a bath" she said before going away.

She walked upstairs, entered to the bathroom and splashed some water on her face as she waited for the bathtub to fill. While doing so she happened to look in the mirror. One of her eyes had gone red while the other had taken of a strong crimson shade, though they were both turning back to their natural amber color. That was weird, she didn't have them before stepping inside the elevator.

"W... what's going on?"

With no answer readily aviable, she simply dropped her clothes and slipped inside the warm water, the tingling beneath the chastity belt still pestering her.

Oberon, on his part, had walked to the closest mirror he could find to look at his own face. It was true, his eyes were azure, though they seemed to be going back to their normal color. There were a few shades of blue in his hair too. He wondered if Eve knew something about that. Either she didn't, or she did but decided not to tell him anything to enjoy his reaction. The second option also implied that it was nothing serious. Yes, that was probably it. And maybe it was just a small error in some of his inner coding, considering what he had recently gone through something like that wouldn't have been weird. Though while that might apply to his eyes, it definitively couldn't work as an explanation for his hair. Rather than thinking further about it, he decided to search again for the bottle of perfume with Ara's scent inside, but once more he couldn't find it.

Dinner that day went by silently, with her-she had put on a spare pantyhose while the other one was getting fixed- occasionally looking at the white cover of the book Oberon was reading. When she went back to her room she opened her wardrobe and began to put things back in order as she had left her clothes in a rather messy state, and in doing so she found something. A small glass bottle. That... wasn't hers. She grabbed it and took a better look at it. Was that perfume? It seemed to be perfume. She sprayed a bit on her hand to sniff it, but couldn't really smell anything. Maybe it was just water? No, it wouldn't make sense to put water inside there. She put it in a pocket of her coat, closed the wardrobe, undressed then threw herself on the bed, ignoring the urge to scratch the tingling between her legs. The chastity belt made not masturbating a lot easier. Also way more frustrating though. Eventually, she pulled out the anal plug from wherever it had been left and slowly put it on, hoping that it would somehow distract her. Then she called out Obe, got under the sheets with him and snuggled up to its tiny body as she waited to fall asleep.

* * *

The next morning seemed to be quite ordinary. Breakfast went by normally. Once she was done eating he asked her if she felt like working again that afternoon, and she couldn't really come up with a reason to say no. Lunch came slowly and uneventfully, and they had another cooking lesson. Ara almost ditched it upon seeing a few eggs, but upon noticing that Oberon simply put them away she dropped the idea of skipping. He had thought that she had gotten over it since she didn't seem too bothered in that sense by the egg the previous day, but... thinking about it, she was probably too worried about other things to think about cooking or eating. Eventually, they found themselves in the elevator, silence surrounding them as they moved to the lower levels. The door opened as they reached the eleventh floor. Walking past the door labeled with a two, they entered a room full of automated spinning machines, aside from the usual pieces of furniture.

"So... what to we have here?" she asked as she looked at the threads being worked, something about them seeming a bit off.

"Jellyfish merfolks, you could say" he replied as he left the key on the table before turning to a drawer.

"Jel... what?" she repeated while taking the chastity belt off.

She turned around, and shortly after Oberon did the same. He was holding something in his hands.

"... what are those?"

"This is an oxigen mask" he said as he placed it on the table "We have to go quite deep, all the way down actually, you will need it to get there"

"You're not saying I have to do that... underwater, right? I mean, way below the surface?"

"There is a cave on the bottom of the lake which contains an air pocket. That's where the session will take place, and once we get inside there you can take the mask off. This is a wetsuit. And these here are weights to make sure you don't float back up at the wrong time while we're going down"

"... a wetsuit? Is it that cold there?"

"A bit, but it's mostly to avoid incidents, an excessive amount of skin contact might cause some problems. It has a zip in the lower half so that you don't have to tear it open to work"

Hearing that made her blush. There had to be a less direct way to say that, right?

"I... don't have a swimsuit though" she noted. The one she had used for the session in the lake had ended... somewhere, she really had no idea where.

"You don't need to wear anything underneath, rather, I would advise against keeping your bra on if it has metal hooks"

Her cheeks turned redder.

"W-wait, you're telling me to strip and wear that?"

"... I guess, yes"

Ara looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds, and cursed the fact that she still had the butt plug on. Should she take that out or not? On one hand, keeping it in didn't seem like a great idea, on the other not doing it meant he might see it. Granted, he had seen her do much more embarassing things, but that didn't make it any less awkward.

"... alright then" she finally said.

Oberon turned around, and for some reason she did the same as she began to nervously undress, their backs facing each other. As she took off her coat, she noticed that the bottle of perfume she had found the previous day was still there. Well, now it wasn't the time to think about that. She took everything, including her hairpin, off, the only exception being her bra as she told herself that she could remove it later, and then grabbed the wetsuit.

It was made of jet black, almost shiny... rubber? She actually didn't know exactly what material that was. She took a good look at it. It sure seemed to be tight, and there really was a zip down there, aside from the one on the back which was already pulled open. There was also an hole for her tails, where they to grow out. She started to try and fit her legs inside, and while the inner side of the suit did slide over her skin much more easily than she had expected, it still took her quite a while to properly get in. It was her first time ever wearing one after all, and considering that she was actually doing quite well. An overall short while -and a removed bra- later, she had finished putting it on, though she took another minute or so to properly adjust it, the layer of neoprene -that was the actual material it was made of- covering her whole body except for her feet, her hands and her head. Well, and the tail hole on her lower back. Lastly she put on the weights, which were a pair of ankle rings made of metal. Then she turned around, and saw Oberon.

In a swimsuit. Black trunks, to be a bit more accurate, his clothes neatly folded and piled on the floor next to him.

"Are you ready?" he asked, still facing the wall.

"Eh-ah-y-yes" she replied nervously.

That was the first time she had ever seen so much of his skin exposed, and the thought made her blush. She had already seen him shirtless after the session with that sort of feathered snake with six arms, but the fact that he was wearing a swimsuit somehow made it completely different. That, and he did look great. He turned around and glanced at her. Truth be told, he was having similar thoughts about her, the thight wetsuit making her curves stand out more than her usual clothing did. Unlike Ara, however, he managed not to show it on his face. Before some of what was in his mind could somehow leak out, he headed to the door.

"Let's go then" he said.

She grabbed the oxygen mask and followed him through the door, the wetsuit feeling more comfortable than she had expected against her skin as she walked. Though she immediatly regretted having left the plug inside, the suit pushing it just a tiny bit deeper than she had gotten used to. As for the inside of the dome, it was a lake. Or rather, it looked like a small piece of sea encircled by a wall made of rocks and reefs. They were standing on the only, small turf of ground not submerged.

"This way" Oberon said as he began walking down a stair carved in the rock.

Ara put on the mask, made sure it was properly locked in place and followed him underwater, the weights making a nice job at allowing her to simply walk rather than swim. That did feel a bit weird though. The staircase was etched on the outer edge of the dome in a spiral fashion, and since she couldn't really talk with that on -not like they usually talked much during those times anyway- she looked around instead. There wasn't much to see at first, which also meant there wasn't much to distract her from the plug, but as they moved further down several fishes began to appear, though they were rather small and mostly gathered around the seaweed bushes, which were getting more and more abundant. The wetsuit kept her comfortably warm, though the weights around her ankles, convenient as they were, felt a bit weird. As they approached the bottom, she noticed that there were several holes on the floor, each large enough for a person or two to comfortably swim through, and that the stairs too proceeded further below.

Heading down there was somewhat unsettling, but she kept following Oberon anyway. Oddly enough, there was a faint light coming from further below them which illuminated the cavity they had entered in place of the sunlight that could no longer reach them. It wasn't much though, and for a short distance she had to hold on to Oberon with one hand while tasting the walls with the other to avoid bumping into something in the almost complete dark. Then the stairs turned a sharp corner and went up, the light now being much more intense. A few steps later they emerged -partially, the water still reached her breasts- inside a cave which was, as Oberon had said, filled with air. In some parts the floor reached up above the water surface, and on some of those areas were trees, their long, downward facing leaves glowing with enough intensity to illuminate the place with a faintly violet light. Some even sprouted from below the water, and were considerably larger than those growing from above it.

"I seem to have gotten the timing a bit wrong" he commented as he looked around, no living creature in sight "We've arrived a bit too early"

Ara took off the mask and walked around a bit. The place looked nice, and since they apparently had to wait for a while she took the chance to enjoy the scenery. She noticed a few of the same holes she had seen before the stairs went underground, and guessed they were connected. Most of them were underwater, but there were also a few on the dry surfaces of the cave. After taking a better look at the trees she noticed that there were fruits here and there on the branches, though juicy as they looked she didn't really feel like trying them out. Then she heard a sound behind her and turned around.

A few meters away from her was a vaguely humanoid creature, standing where the water reached around its waist. By the look of it, it wasn't much taller than her, if at all. It had two skinny arms with webbed hands, an head and no legs. The skin was of a dark blue with no scales, and the eyes were empty like those of a fish. It had nostrills but no nose, and it's mouth was surprisingly small. It didn't have any hair but the back of the head, the shoulders and the waist were covered in what strongly resembled a large jellyfish bell which seemed to reflect the light. From underneath them came several dozens -if not more- of long, extremely thin tentacles, and a few of what Ara was almost sure were called oral arms, though the name probably wasn't as appropriate for that creature. All of those floated in the water around the merfolk, making for an impressive, if somewhat weird, sight. She guessed those were what the spinning machines back in the antechamber were working on.

Ara looked at Oberon, her eyes asking him if she was supposed to do something in particular, and he simply told her to go where the water was a bit deeper. She did so, a bit hesitantly as, while she had never had personal experiences with jellyfishes, she had heard of some bad encounters people had had with them. She stopped where the water reached her ribs. A few moments later the creature let itself fall down, its bells expanding and waving in the water, propelling it forward. She wasn't sure how that worked, but it did look nice. Relatively. The creature got back on its feet at less than an arm's length from her and began to smell her. Not sure about how to act, Ara simply stood there, a bit concerned about the tentacles which were slowly forming a sort of circle around them. Wether that was intentional on its part of not, she had no idea.

The creature then placed its hands over her shoulders and began to slowly ran them over her body, in a somewhat awkward manner, as if it wasn't sure what it was doing. Ara wondered if its hands were padded or if it was the wetsuit that made its touch feel like that. Occasionally it would touch her breasts or her rear, but it really looked like it was just genuinely curious about what -well, who- was in front of it.

And then another one emerged from the water.

Ara said nothing, but felt a cold sweat run down her face. Oberon... did use the plural, right. How in the world did she miss that? Anyway, the second one seemed to be taller, but she couldn't really see many other differences aside from that. It pushed away the smaller one, which didn't quite look too happy about that but also didn't resist, and... groped her. It didn't just touch her casually like the first one, it grabbed her rear rather firmly -as much as its hand allowed it to, since they didn't have the best shape fof it- and opened its mouth, running its cylindrical, long tongue over her breasts, the wetsuit separating her skin from it.

"W-wait, what's with the change in attitude?" she asked, her voice maybe a tad too loud.

"Older ones tend to be more assertive"

Well, that did explain the difference in size. As its tentacles began to wrap around her body, the creature pushed her back. She briefly ended up with her head underwater after falling down, but a few moments later she had already brought it back out. Meanwhile, the merfolk had moved one hand between her legs and was currently in a losing battle with the zipper. Wether it didn't know what it was or simply coulnd't open it with its fingers, Ara didn't really care. She brought her hand down and nervously opened it herself to avoid having the wetsuit torn open, her face bright red, the gesture being even more embarassing than she had expected it to be. With her entrance now bare, the creature slid its tongue right inside, the several little bumps along its length rubbing against her inner walls, sending weak but sudden jolts of pleasure through her body. The merfolk also pulled her waist down below the water, and while that made it easier for her to keep her head out -she was floating at the moment rather than standing- that also meant that her... natural lubrification was getting washed away. It didn't quite make it painful, just... less enjoyable? A bit uncomfortable, that was for sure.

Telling herself not to think about that, she instead focused on keeping her balance, something made easier by the small sea of tiny tentacles tangling around her. Most of them were so thin she could hardly see them, but they felt surprisingly warm, hot even, against her exposed skin, which is to say her feet and hands. For one reason or another, none touched her neck or head. As for the creature still licking her, it... sure was vigorous, but also... wasn't really that good at it? The thought itself was embarassing, but she still had a faint tingling from the previous day, and the jellyfish man wasn't doing exactly a great job at scratching it. She was too shy to say anything about that though, and even then, it's not like it would have understood her anyway.

Then, suddenly, she felt its tongue slide out, quickly replaced by something else, warmer, thicker and harder. The sudden penetration made her gasp, the lack of proper lubrification making the insertion a tad too rough. While she was still lying on the water surface, her mate grabbed her hips and began to thrust back and forth. The stimulation took a short while to go from mildly painful due to the foreplay being too short -and the whole thing happening underwater- to rather nice, but also relatively weak, at least compared to what she had already experienced. And much to her surprise, a few minutes later she felt its warm seed releasing inside of her, but far as she was stil from her climax, that feeling didn't do too much to bring her closer to the edge. As she kicked herself in the head -mentally- for thinking about how disappointingly short that was instead of how nice it was that it was over already, however, the creature started moving again, with just as much vigor as before.

Not really displeased by that, Ara kept going back and forth between trying to ignore the feeling because of her shyness and simply enjoying it because there wasn't much else to do. The fact that the pleasure was building up at a slow pace made it rather easy to keep her voice in check, which made the whole thing less embarassing. At least until she let out a sudden shriek when something moved the butt plug around. Unable to really turn around in her current situation, she still managed to see that the other merfolk had floated underwater right beneath her and grabbed the plug.

"W-wait a moment!" she nearly shouted, wondering if the zip had slid open by itself or if she had accidentally pulled it too much. Actually, why did it even go that far back in the first place?

Oblivious to her thoughts, the younger creature kept toying with the plug, which caused Ara to involuntarily tighten up. Then, as suddenly as the merfolk had grabbed it, it pulled the plug out, making her let out a moan, her face red. The older one then leaned forward, and Ara found herself right on the surface of the water, partially floating and partially resting over the younger one's body while the older creature was lying over her, keeping her relatively still, its head right next to hers, the back and forth motion of its hips never stopping.

"No no no wait a mom-mmnhh!"

The other creature penetrated her rear from behind and began moving as well, and the fact that the two of them thrusted at different paces made it especially hard for Ara to adapt to the sudden development. The skins of the merfolks being rather slippery against the wetsuit -and water not being the best thing to lie on to avoid naturally drifting away-, she also began to slip to the side a bit, and before she could hold on to one of them to avoid falling down they both grabbed her to hold her in place. And their hands ended up in the worst places they could possibly wind up on, namely her breasts and her butt. Soon enough she felt both of her partners releasing their seed inside of her, and just like the first time they stopped for merely a few moments before resuming the mating. Her voice turning into a series of moans, Ara felt her climax approaching, the pleasure building up more and more, her muscles tensing up as the jellyfishes's tentacles wrapped further around her limbs, her arms and legs by now entangled all the way to the elbows and knees.

Her back arched soon after her teeth had dug into her lips, her breathing stopping for a few moments as a warm wave spreader through her nerves, both her entrance and her rear contracting against her partners's members, causing them to slow down, if only a little. And while her orgasm was still lingering in her system, the one beneath her released its seed once again inside of her, with the older one soon doing the same, prolonging her climax. Without ever changing position nor rythim, the two creatures continued to indulge in her body, in an honestly not really creative but undeniably persistent fashion, the three of them slowly drifting off to where the water wasn't as deep.

Ara had no idea for how long they kept going. Their seed dripping out of her and floating off in the water, her body unable to hold all of it inside, she spasmed again as what probably was her third orgasm coursed through her body, her teeth once again digging inside her lips, threatening to spill her own blood, the stimulation continually building up, uncaring of her ever increasing sensitivity.

The next orgasm arrived quickier than the previous one, her body shaking once more, her voice since long out of her control, her moans echoing inside the cave. Then, at one point, her partners simply stopped moving. Well, not at the same time actually, the younger one kept thrusting back and forth inside her rear for a couple more rounds than the other one, but after that he too became still. Ara took the chance to try and regulate her breath a bit but, soon after, a third one emerged from the water, right in front of her face.

"Anoth-mmh?!"

Before she could finish the sentence, or even just the first word, the new arrival had grabbed her head and inserted its whole length inside her mouth. She nearly chocked on it for a moment as she instinctively tried to move away, but with the other two still tangled around her limbs -and, well, still inside of her as well- she couldn't really do that. Before she could attempt to push it away, however, the creature's member suddenly throbbed, releasing its seed within her mouth. Thankfully the amount was small, but while the taste was surprisingly sweet, almost disturbingly so, the consistency was terrible. The creature then pulled out, allowing her to cough most of it out while it smacked the two other merfolks on the head.

Apparently they had fallen asleep, since that seemed to suddenly wake them up. They awkwardly drifted away from Ara, their tentacles smoothly sliding off the wetsuit, the sudden motion sending a last jolt of pleasure through her body. She took a better look at the third one and noticed that its skin wasn't as coloured, its body was thinner and it had considerably less tentacles, though it also was taller. It looked... old. The thought wasn't exactly pleasant, for one reason or another. The three merfolks seemed to have a brief conversation or something like that, then they just drifted away, disappearing underwater. That was... not the best way to end a session.

"How do you feel?" Oberon asked.

"How do you think I feel?" she replied as she took advantage of the amount of water readily aviable to wash her mouth.

As she did so, she noticed that clenching her fists was hard. Actually, her hands had turned rather greenish. Well, he did say that excessive skin contact would have been bad, which probably meant she'd go back to normal soon enough. Right? Then she looked at her own reflection. Her eyes were mostly red and she had a few strands of white hair, but again, nothing more than that.

"You can close it now, in case you were wondering" he commented.

"Clos -?!"

Realizing that she was bent forward facing the worst direction she could have possibly picked while the lower zip was still open, Ara dived underwater immediatly, her hands scrambling to pull the slider back up before emerging again. Oberon was already going back to the stairs, which was a sort of relief since that way he couldn't see how much she was blushing. She looked around a bit for the oxygen mask, found it and quickly grabbed it before walking up to him. He looked quite great with his hair wet, the drops of water falling from them trailing down along his body accentuating his muscles.

 _... what?_ she thought after having rationalized what had just crossed her mind.

"Are you ready?"

"Just... give me a few minutes to recover"

Said few minutes went by silently. Awkwardly so. Oberon kept facing away from her, and she felt like she knew why. Eventually she put the mask on and tapped him on the shoulder, and he did turn around to make sure she was set. As she had suspected -why, she wasn't sure- his eyes were mostly blue. Without a word, he began walking and she followed him. On their way up she would occasionally look at her hands, and while their color was turning back to normal she felt like her fingers were actually growing number. When they finally reached the surface, Ara took off the oxygen mask -that turned out to be a surprisingly hard task, her hands getting even less responsive than before- and took a long, deep breath. That had been quite the experience, especially considering the underwater walk they had to do.

Then she placed her hands over her belly, feeling especially filled up. The same kind of applied to her rear, but she tried not to think about it. ... actually... she had forgotten the plug down there. Well, that was as good as lost probably. No way she was going all the way back just for that.

"Do you mind if I... get changed here?" she asked, thinking about giving herself a quick wash before putting her clothes on.

"Not at all. I'll prepare something do dry up a bit" he replied as he walked back inside the antechamber, closing the door behind him.

He opened a couple of drawers, pulled a few towels out and placed them on the table, used one to wipe himself then changed back into his usual clothes. Soon after, Ara walked inside, still in her wetsuit. Oberon forced himself not to focus on the water drops over it which made her almost shine under the light, her wet hair sticking to her back, her ample breasts pressed beneath the thick garment which emphasized her excellent figure. He forced himself not to focus on any of that. The results of his attempts were... questionable.

"I... " Ara said, snapping him back to reality "I can't... open the zip..." she said while trying to close her hands, her fingers barely able to move, making her unable to grasp anything, especially something as small as the zip's slider.

Her face was red. Oberon... was kind of happy about that. And nervous. And that was the reason why he wanted to simply wait a bit for her hands to recover, it wouldn't take long anyway. Or maybe he could bring her something to make the process faster, that was a good option too. There should have been a cream somewhere there for that. That said, he had no idea what could have possibly crossed his mind as he said what he said.

"I'll help you remove it then"

Upon hearing that, a small strand of her hair turned white. His hair, on the other part, had taken on a dark shade of blue since quite a while already. Ara didn't really reply, instead simply turning around. He felt like he could hear her breaths, but maybe it was just an impression. He walked up to her, slowly, and raised his hands. For a moment he thought he was shaking, but that couldn't be the case. First things first. He bent down to remove the weights from her ankles, letting them fall on the floor, and got back up. Then he gently grabbed her hair, which was already partially out of the way, and moved it aside, fully revealing the zip beneath. He grabbed the slider and pulled it down. Not as quickly as he should have, probably. Ara said nothing, for one reason or another, and Oberon found his gaze locked on the thin layer of exposed skin between the slowly parting edges of the black neoprene.

When he finally pulled it completely open, Ara turned around. Her face was red, her breath a bit ragged, yet he felt like she was somehow calmer than him. With neither of them saying anything, he grabbed the wetsuit on the upper half of her back, near the neck, and slowly began to remove it, pulling it down bit by bit. She didn't resist at all, instead she moved her right arm to make it easier for him to remove the suit. Then they did the same with her left one. It took a tiny bit of force to do so, since the wetsuit kind of stuck to her skin due to being, well, wet. The top half then fell down, hanging from the waist, leaving her chest exposed, her breasts moving up and down with every breath.

Oberon managed to fix his stare on her eyes, even redder than her cheeks, before getting on his knees. He lowered his gaze, to the point he was looking more at the floor than at her, as he began to pull the wetsuit down, exposing her privates, a bit of seed still dripping out of them. Soon after they had gotten her completely out of the neoprene. He got back up and turned around as quickly as he could.

"The towels are on the table" he said as he walked past them, fully aware that there was no way she hadn't seen them already "I'll... wait here" he added as he briefly scratched his head.

That gesture was... odd for him, to say the least. Ara wasn't sure how to interpret that. Though she gave priority to grabbing a towel, wiping herself and getting dressed rather than thinking about that. Truth be told, Oberon did that simply because he felt a sort of... itch. Which actually didn't make sense. He was starting to worry. First the color of his eyes, then the shades of blue in his hair, and now an itch. Eve hadn't really told him anything, but he was finding it harder and harder to believe that there was nothing wrong with his body.

While putting her clothes on -doing so with her hands still not quite responding was a bit awkward but something she had every intention of accomplishing-, Ara found something else on the table. Which is to say, the anal plug. Evidently, Oberon had grabbed it before coming back up. She didn't blush, mainly because her cheeks were already completely red, and put it in her pocket, grateful that they were large enough to fit it completely. As she did that, her hands found once again the small glass bottle, and once again she thought that to be nothing too important, at least at the moment. She could always ask about that later. She finished getting dressed, hesitating a bit when it came to the chastity belt but ultimately putting it on. A few minutes later they were both back inside the elevator, standing a bit farther from each other than necessary, in silence.

When they reached the ground floor Ara headed to the bathroom, though she felt like taking a shower rather than having a bath, while Oberon disappeared somewhere up until dinner, and by then her hands had gone back to normal. The meal went by rather uneventfully -she had mixed feelings about the main dish being fish-, silently even, at least until she had finished eating. Before she could get up, Oberon closed his book and placed it on the table.

"There is one thing you should be informed about" he said.

"What?" she asked back.

For some reason, she had a good feeling about whatever she was about to hear. And ever more oddly, she felt like he sounded a bit... disconsolate? That couldn't really be the case though. It probably was just an impression.

"The next session will be the last one. After that, your debt will be extinguished"

Ara didn't quite react at first. She waited a short while, as if to see if he'd say that he was just joking, that he suddenly realized he had done the calculations wrong or something along those lines. But he didn't. The news then finally sank into her mind. Her face lighted up.

"Really!?"

"Really"

His gaze fell on her smile. She was about to say "finally", but then realized that considering how much money the debt amounted to, she had actually gone through it at lightning speed.

_I might kind of miss thi- !_

Her cheeks turned red as she realized what thought had just crossed her mind. It was true, however, that the job she did there had amazingly flexibles working hours, she had paid meals, a room all to herself and there was no way she'd get fired due to oversleeping. ... she probably had better grow out of that habit anyway. But yes, that was what she meant when she thought she might miss it. That was definitively it. Absolutely. She stood up and went to her room, wondering if it was too early to start packing her stuff.

Oberon, on his part, cleaned up the kitchen, walked to his room, sat down at the writing desk, pulled out a blank sheet of paper, placed the tip of a pen on it and froze. It wasn't that he didn't know what to write. On the contrary, it was a rather standardized kind of text. The problem was that he wasn't sure writing that was a good idea. On one hand, while he could handle things mostly fine by himself, some help would have been appreciated. On the other, going through with that could possibly mean getting less work done, which wouldn't have been optimal. And maybe Eve wouldn't even approve of it either way.

As he kept thinking about those things, several other thoughts crossing his mind as well, his hand eventually moved, letters flowing on the paper one after the other.


	27. Breaking Point

**Breaking Point**

The following day went by uneventfully. After the initial excitement had died down, Ara realized that it was a bit early to pack her stuff -she didn't have much anyway- and decided to enjoy the quietness of the place instead. That was probably the most silent part of the city after all. Lunch and dinner went by smoothly, and her cooking lessons too. Mostly. Oberon did seem a bit... distant during the lecture, but maybe it was just her impression. Or he could be worried about the fact that, unlike hers, neither his eyes nor his hair had gone back to normal. She was rather concerned by that too, but she had no idea what to do about it. That, and maybe it was nothing serious. Night arrived slowly, and went by just as quickly.

The next day, something odd happened. When she went to the kitchen for breakfast, Oberon wasn't there. The food was cooked, served and all, but he wasn't around. By itself, that wasn't something she'd worry about. But the same thing happened again at lunch, and for some reason the fact bothered her. Later in the afternoon, while she was in her room wondering how to move Obe to her house without having to explain anything to the neighbours, she heard knocks against the door. Making sure Oberon's spare body was hidden, she went to open. Standing in front of her was, well, the only other person currently in the menagerie. But he was wearing his helmet. It wasn't that she had never seen him with it on, quite the contrary, but she was fairly sure he'd never put it on while at the menagerie, at least not while she was looking.

Without a word, he handed her a bag, turned around and walked away. She called him, but got no reply. She was... a bit angry, actually. That was just rude. She walked back inside, closing the door behind her, and opened the bag. Inside were the sheer top she had cut open herself under the rain and the dress which had been torn to pieces by that feathered snake with multiple arms. She was impressed he had managed to piece that one back together. To the point she kind of suspected he hadn't really and that one was simply the same model. Well, not like it really mattered even if that really were the case.

"... he could have at least waited for me to thank him" she pouted.

Ara had a solitary dinner as well. She thought about waiting for him at the elevator, he had to go through there sooner or later for work after all, but... maybe whatever was going on had nothing to do with her? Or rather, she didn't want to bother him for something which might actually be nothing serious? ... no, not even that. She just had this feeling that something wasn't quite right. What exactly, she didn't know.

* * *

The next day, during breakfast, Oberon was there. He still had his helmet on, but at least he had showed up.

"Good morning" she said as she sat down.

It took him a few seconds to reply, and even when he did he didn't quite greet her back.

"Are you ready for work this afternoon?" he asked instead.

"Well... yes"

"Very well. I'll wait for you at the elevator after lunch" he replied as he stood up and walked away.

"Hey, wait a mom... ent..." she said, but once again her words fell on deaf ears as Oberon closed the door behind him.

... was he just avoiding her? That was getting a bit on her nerves. As she had expected, he didnt' show up for lunch either. She took her sweet time eating then leisurely walked to the lift. She stared at him -he wasn't there when she walked by to go to the kitchen-, the helmet still covering his face as they silently stepped inside. As the elevator moved downward, she looked to the side and noticed that he was standing quite farther from her than usual.

"Did something happen?" she asked.

"Just a minor inconvenience. Nothing you have to worry about"

"Is that minor inconvenience the reason you're being so elusive?"

"... yes, I'd say it is"

"Would you mind telling me what it is then?"

"Yes, I would" he replied.

The doors opened and he quickly stepped out. Ara hurried after him, not really paying attention to what floor they were on, or what door they got through. The antechamber they walked into contained, aside from the usual furniture, two large freezers and a refrigerator.

"Did I do something to upset you? I don't think I did, but if I'm wrong please tell me" she said, not really trying to hide her irritation. Which was a bit... odd, in a way.

"No, this... I'm just having some personal problems, nothing more" he replied as he placed the chastity belt's key on the table "I'll go ahead while you get ready"

"Would you at least..." she began to say as she grabbed his arm, but as she did so she felt something weird underneath his shirt.

In response, Oberon grabbed her as well, almost reflexively, and for a few seconds they stood there like that before letting go of each other. Without a word, he entered the dome first. Left alone, Ara stared at her arm, where he had grasped her. His hand was... she felt like there was something weird about his hand, though his gloves prevented her from seeing his skin. That, and when she had gripped him she had suddenly felt warm. Her mind had almost fizzled out for a moment, and her heartbeat had suddenly increased. ... she had a bad feeling about that. A really bad feeling. She took off the chastity belt, readjusted her clothes a bit, left the key on the table and stepped through the door.

She found herself on a beach. The sun was high in the sky, the sea almost flat, the breeze barely perceptible against her. Since he hadn't talked about any sort of swimwear she guessed she wasn't going out into the water, though a part of her didn't really exclude the possibility that he hadn't told her about it because he was too busy avoiding her. That sounded excessive though, and she didn't really believe him to be that kind of person. ... not that she thought he was one to suddenly start avoiding someone without saying why even after being asked either.

There were a few bushes and trees quite far away on her left, on the side opposite to the sea -which, by all accounts, was actually just a lake- but she couldn't really see anything there. She looked at Oberon, who was sitting a bit further ahead, his gaze... somewhere on the sand. She really couldn't tell with his face hidden.

"... what should I do now?" she asked.

"Take a walk on the beach, that should be enough to attract this guest"

That sounded simple enough. She wondered about taking off her shoes, and soon after did just that. She began wandering around barefooted, her footwear in her hands, staying far enough from the water to avoid getting wet. At one point she looked back. Oberon hadn't moved an inch, still sitting in the same spot, and since she didn't want to go too far away from him she turned around and began walking in circles. Then she stopped for a moment.

The sun was warm. Too warm, actually. She took off her coat, and then stared at her pantyhose. Walking on the beach with that on wasn't exactly comfortable, but she kept it on anyway because her skirt was short and there wasn't much else covering her privates, but the nylon was making her legs burn. It was a wonder how she hadn't already started sweating -that, or the pantyhose had just absorbed it-, but it was getting unbearable. After a minute or so of fidgeting with her feet, she gave up and removed the pantyhose. What little breeze there was felt pleasantly cold on her legs. Now barefooted for real, she looked around for something to drop her clothes on since carrying all of that around was somewhat bothersome. But she stopped on her tracks before she could find a good spot.

There was something in front of her. She saw something moving right underneath the sand for a brief moment. She barely had time to spot its eyes before the creature emerged completely, barely a couple of meters away from her.

The first thing she thought of upon seeing it was a centipede, though its body and all of its limbs were covered by a sturdy-looking, orange shell which reminded her of a crab. Its belly wasn't really exposed, but the carapace did look thinner there. The end of each of its legs, of which there probably were at least four dozens, was oddly split in three, with each ending in an oddly blunt-looking claw. On top of that, it had three pairs of limbs that clearly weren't legs protunding from its back. Placed at regular intervals from each other but all still rather close to the head when compared to its body length, they were probably longer than the legs, though Ara wasn't sure as unlike those they were folded on themselves, and each ended with a large chela. Its body, while nowhere near as massive as that of the caterpillar, was still large enough for her to possibly lie down on its flat side. Well, mostly flat, since aside from its belly the shell was fairly irregular and knobby. The centipede didn't seem to have forcipules at least, which meant it wasn't venomous. ... probably. She wasn't exactly an expert in biology and such.

The creature moved its head around a bit as it stared at her, its folded arms extending a bit, their joints bending in rather... unusual ways. The centipede then dashed forward, almost slamming itself against her, two of its spincers closing around her arms just below her wrists while two other grasped her near the ankles. Yelping a little as her back hit the sand, her coat, pantyhose and shoes all flying away as she lost her grip on them, she found herself lying on the beach, the centipede's body staying a bit above her, its weight resting on only a few of its numerous legs as the others loomed in the air next to her. She felt a bit of pain and saw a few drops of blood falling from her skin where the pinchers were holding her, even though she wasn't feeling much pressure on her flesh. When her gaze moved back to the creature's face, two large featherlike antennae were there. That almost spooked her, as she had no idea where they could have been hidden up until that moment.

The large bug then began to move them rather violently against her body -thankfully those weren't covered by its shell- probably to examine her or something like that. They felt a bit ticklish against her neck, and at one point a small bit of them nearly slipped into her mouth, but aside from that it wasn't as uncomfortable as it looked like. Soon after the two antennae began to focus on her breasts and between her legs, and while that didn't really stimulate her it still was kind of embarassing. Then it moved them back up and rested its two remaining free arms against her belly. At the same time, a few smaller limbs moved from underneath its belly, previously perfectly hidden along the shell. They each ended with a few small claws, though those looked quite blunt too.

The sheer amount of limbs looming around her was making Ara nervous, not that the situation itself helped her anyway in that regard. The creature began to... tap on her body, somewhat softly but quickly, rhythmically almost, with its claws. That felt quite awkward and a tiny bit uncomfortable, at least at first, but nothing more. The tapping slowly moved to her sides, which made her squirm a bit, then slowly creeped downward, reaching her hips, her thighs, and eventually even her feet, before finally stopping. The whole time, the creature's gaze had remained on her face. Not really sure what to think of its actions, Ara just stood still -not that she could do much else anyway- and wondered what would have happened next.

As if to answer that question, the centipede placed several of its appendages all over her skirt and began to push it up, slowly and somewhat awkwardly but steadily. Ara blushed a bit but said nothing, maybe because she was used to it, maybe for some other reason. Then the creature did the same with her dress. After having rolled it up all the way to her breasts, however, it struggled for a while against them, eventually resorting to sliding it down rather than pulling it further up as the shirt was rather tight and the centipede probably didn't know how to remove it. It then began to tinker with her bra, managing to push it up in a relatively short time, leaving her chest bare. Ara's cheeks turned a bit redder than before, and the centipede quickly tapped its fingers over her exposed breasts again, as if to make sure there weren't other layers to peel off. At last, it moved back down to her legs.

Ara made sure her breathing was regular as the centipede finally moved its gaze away from her face, its arms still holding her in place as it examined her now half naked body. Having brought its antennae back down, they each split in two before slowly rubbing against her body. The creature's two free chelae then closed on her breasts, sort of groping her. She saw a few drops of blood coming off her skin from there as well, but for one reason or another she pretty much didn't feel any pain. Then a few of the centipede's legs moved closer to her exposed entrance. They began to tap on her skin, namely on her thighs and belly, rather softly but quickly as they slowly approached her privates. Ara found that surprisingly... arousing. A bit ticklish too, but not that much. That said, she definitively hadn't seen coming what happened next, which is to say the tapping continued even after the creature's sort-of fingers reached her entrance. The odd, unexpected and not too weak stimulation continued for a bit longer than one might have expected, getting her more and more flustered.

She struggled a bit against the centipede's limbs holding her in place, realizing that the pain from its pinchers had faded, when the creature moved its antennae down. The way it moved them around actually made her think of something other than what they supposedly were. Especially when she felt the tip of two of them right against her entrance, which by then had gotten... reasonably damp. The creature lifted two more legs from the ground and began to tap on her breasts with those right before sliding its antennae inside of her. Ara had braced for that, but the combination of unusual foreplay and large amount of bumps on the featherlike feelers managed to make her let out a weak moan anyway. What she hadn't prepared for was the antennae's turning around on themselves as they began to move around, pushing against her inner walls, scratching pretty much her whole inside almost all at the same time simply because of how many bumps were on them.

Trying to keep her voice down while at the same time kind of savoring the feeling, the creature raised even more legs, dozens of its pointless claws tapping quickly and repeatedly on her arms, on her legs, on her sides, on her belly, almost everywhere. While not really unpleasant, the feeling did kind of take her out of it, making it easier to handle the pleasure while not actually making it less intense. Because of that, her clit suddenly being reached by the relentless motions of the centipede's fingers caught her completely by surprise. She let out a surprised shriek as the sudden, additional pleasure hit her, adding up to the one she was feeling from within.

Building off each other, the stimulations began to pile up, though... maybe it was just an impression, but she felt like the centipede's tapping was kind of changing. As if its fingers began to trace an ever so short line over her skin before pulling back. It was sort of ticklish. But maybe it was just her impression. With nothing else to really do, she tried to focus on the pleasure -the alternative suddenly seemed to be worse- and on keeping her voice down, until a soft laugh escaped her.

A chill ran down her spine. No, she had probably imagined it. She had to. The creature was still tapping over her entrance, frequently poking her clit, while two of its antennae were still moving around inside of her, though the sudden laugh made an unexpected amount of the built-up pleasure fade away. She regulated her breath again, something not overly simple in her current situation, and tried again to focus. ... it was hard. Another laugh was slowly creeping its way up her throat, every motion of the centipede's fingers over her skin pulling her voice out, bit by bit. Her expression began to twist as she tried to resist, but eventually her mouth gave way to another, brief but clearly audible laughter.

She shut her mouth as quickly as she could, a few drops of sweat starting to run along her forehead. She couldn't really lie to herself anymore. She was being tickled. Her face grew pale as she realized that the centipede's motions were slowly going from tapping to scratching. On her sides too, and she was ticklish there. To make things worse, she felt the creature's other antennae sliding inside of her, sending a few jolts of pleasure through her body, jolts quickly dampened by the tickling. She forced her mouth shut to hold her voice in -wether that would have been a moan or a laugh, she wasn't sure- as she struggled against the centipede's arms holding her down. Not out of instinct but out of... desperation might be too strong of a word, but it wouldn't be too far off either. She didn't have much experience with being tickled, but still enough to know she couldn't handle it.

As she squirmed around with more and more strength, her mouth slowly but surely curved into an unwilling smile. The creature's legs were focused mostly at her sides at the moment, and because of that she kept moving her waist as much as she could in an attempt to escape its touch, though with her wrists and ankles firmly held in place she couldn't quite do much. And when the centipede moved its two last pinchers from her breasts to her sides, further pinning her down, her last faint hope of escaping from that situation faded.

The creature was still scraping her insides with its feathered antennae, and the tapping over her entrance hadn't stopped either. Actually, that had turned into more of a scratching as well, resulting in a more intense stimulation, but the pleasure couldn't build up. Truth be told, she didn't really know if she was particularly ticklish or if it was normal to react that way as she had never talked with anyone about it, but the tickling made her arousal fade, the pleasant feelings from her privates dissipating too quickly to be able to get her anywhere. But the creature kept stimulating her anyway. It was beyond frustrating. The only bright side was that it kind of worked both ways, with the actually sexual stimulation distracting her a bit from the tickling, albeith it was much more effective the other way around.

Soon after, Ara could no longer fully hold her voice back. Soft laughs began to escape from her lips, growing slowly but steadily louder and more frequent. There was an occasional moan mixed in, but all the scraping against her sweet spots was doing at that point was just keeping her aroused while not getting her off. To make things worse, the creature was using more and more of its limbs to tickle her. She had almost stopped squirming to focus on dealing with the stimulation, but upon realizing that the centipede would have soon reached her armpits and soles, panic took over her. It wasn't putting that much strength into the tickling, which was the whole reason Ara had managed to hold out so well -relatively- up to that point, but there was no way she could handle being tickled in all those spots at once. She began to struggle violently, and at first she did manage to move a bit, probably because the centipede hand't expected it, but her escape attempt quickly died as the creature's limbs strengthened their grasp on her and pushed her down against the sand again.

She considered biting her lips, and for a moment she almost did so, but then feared that she might accidentally put too much force into her jaw as a reaction to the tickling and decided it was better not to risk that. Then, the centipede reached her other ticklish spots as she cursed herself for having taken her shoes off. Maybe the pantyhose could have protected her feet a bit too? ... probably not.

Ara managed to hold on for only a few seconds before bursting out laughing, her voice filling the air as she squirmed uncontrollably against the creature's pinchers. While it was still running its antennae around inside of her, the feeling was completely lost in the laughters, her mind too busy dealing with that to even process the pleasure. She tried to focus on something, anything else to distract herself, but to no avail, each single motion of the centipede's limbs bringing her mind back to the cruel situation she was in. Her eyes began to tear up as she trashed around so much it was a mystery how she wasn't hurting herself against the centipede's pointed pinchers. Panic gave way to confusion as the overwhelming feeling made her more and more light-headed, her lungs getting less and less air in as she was unable to stop herself from laughing, sweat running down her skin. Eventually -and quite quickly, truth be told- she got to the point where her lungs were almost empty, and then she heard something.

She had no idea what that sound was, but it made the centipede come to a sudden stop. She took the chance to catch her breath, and just when the creature was about to start again the sound filled the air again. She turned her head around and saw Oberon with an oddly shaped whistle in hand, his helmet lifted just enough to leave his mouth exposed.

"T... thanks..." she said, her breath still ragged. Though he was standing quite far and her voice was rather low, so she wasn't even sure he understood her.

He placed the whistle against his lips and blowed once again.

"Using it a fourth time isn't advisable" he said, loudly enough for her to hear him "It might react violently, which would be... troublesome, given the current situation"

"I... see..." she replied, her face doing a terrible job at hiding her disappointment.

While her lungs managed to take in quite a lot of precious air, she barely had time to mentally prepare herself when the centipede started tickling her again. Unlike before, she completely failed to stop herself from laughing, her loud voice bursting out from her throat as she squirmed around, not because she wanted to but because her body responded that way to the stimulation. Soon after, tears began falling from her eyes again. At one point, however, she realized that the centipede had moved away from her armpits. Why, she didn't know, and at least at the moment she also couldn't care less, but soon after her soles found themselves relieved of the stimulation as well. Ara was still laughing, but the centipede was tickling her less and less, and slowly she managed to regain some of her composure, not much but still a bit.

Eventually, it fully stopped. Grateful for that to finally be over, Ara tried to regulate her breathing a bit, her chest moving up and down irregularly with every ragged breath she took. Then, a quick motion of the creature's antennae reminded her that those were still inside of her, something she honestly had completely forgotten about. Her previous arousal had completely died down, but upon feeling the appendages scratch against her inner walls she realized that she was still wet. With the tickling gone, her excitement grew quickly, unproportionally to the actual stimulation she was receiving, but she managed to keep her voice down this time. Her muscles began to tense up as warmth spred through her body, as if all the pleasure she thought had disappeared suddenly came back out from hiding. It happened too suddenly, and Ara barely had time to bite down on her lips before being brought over the edge.

... or so she thought. Not that she didn't have an orgasm, but... her lips didn't hurt. Lacking the trigger she needed, the pleasure simply reverberated within her without getting quite there, frustration quickly kicking in. Confused, she bit her lips again. She was sure her teeth were digging into her flesh, maybe even a tad too strongly, but... it wasn't painful. No, that didn't make sense. Maybe her lips had just gone numb somehow? That... didn't quite make sense either. So she tried something else, which is to say, digging her nails into her palms. Nothing. She could feel her fingernails pushing against her flesh, maybe even enough to spill a few drops of blood, but there was no pain. Confused and somewhat frantic as the centipede continued to move its antennae around within her, another orgasm quickly approaching, she tried to bang her head against the ground, but the only thing she gained from that was a brief moment of disorientation and quite a lot of sand on her hair. Then the pleasure piled up past the breaching point, her muscles tensing up but, once again, with not even a tiny bit of pain she couldn't really reach her climax, and the feeling began to slowly fade before it could reach its true apex.

Ara groaned, inadvertently loudly too. She managed to keep her complaints inside her head. The only explanation that came to her mind was that the centipede had -somehow, somewhen and for some reason- injected her with some sort of painkiller. Thinking about it, it didn't hurt when the creature closed its last set of pinchers on her. That, and the bleeding, so... did its chelae inject it into her? She struggled once more against the creature, once more to no avail, unable to get away from the constant stimulation that was currently doing nothing but bringing her ever increasing amounts of frustration. Her third almost climax shook her body as unsatisfyingly as the previous two, and the next one came and went by in the same fashion.

The worst part was probably that she was still getting oversensitive from all of that, her privates feeling every motion with more intensity than the previous one. She reflexively bit her lips again, with enough force to make herself bleed, and while an oh-so faint jolt of pain briefly raced to her brain, it was both too little and for too short a time to help her, on the contrary, it only made her squirm even harder against the pinchers. She was so caught up in the moment -arguably a terrible one, but definitively one intense enough to make her completely focus on it- that she hadn't even realized that the centipede was now holding something with four or so of its legs. It was a sort of ball made of a material that loosely resembled a spider's web.

The creature unceremoniously dropped the object over her belly, then pulled its antennae out of her, sending a last wave of pleasure running through her system before releasing her limbs. It then took a quick look at the surroundings before simply going away, diving back underneath the sand and disappearing. Ara, on her part, remained lying on the sand for a while. Probably a short one, but she wasn't exactly sure. She forced her hands to stay still and not touch herself, both because she was way too sensitive at the moment and because it would have only made things worse as long as the painkiller was still in her body. Assuming it was really a painkiller and not something else entirely. Then she realized that her fox ears had come back out, and she had a tail resting on the sand next to her. She took several slow, deep breaths, then grabbed the somewhat sticky ball resting on her belly. She looked at it for a bit, not really sure what it was, then weakly tossed it aside before slowly getting up and readjusting her clothes. They were a bit roughed up but still intact, which was nice. She walked up to her shoes, coat and pantyhose, grabbed them, then turned around.

Oberon was now standing, but aside from that he hadn't moved an inch from where he had been the whole time. Though, upon seeing her walking up to him, he simply turned his back to her and headed to the door. Ara's fur stood up. She hurried after him, almost running, and got to the antechamber before he could close the door behind him.

"Listen here" she said as she dropped her shoes, her voice louder than usual, her face still red "Why... " she began saying, then realized that she wasn't sure what exactly she wanted to bring up "... why didn't you tell me about the painkiller?" she then asked.

Oberon, who had put a few steps between the two of them, turned around from the other side of the table.

... she was right. Why hadn't he told her? No, that wasn't the right question. He said nothing because he had forgotten. The point was: how could he have forgotten that? It was one of the things they harvested from that centipede in the first place, he was fully aware of it producing such a substance. Yet it had completely slipped his mind.

"I forgot" he replied.

"You forgot?!" Ara shouted back, her fox ears standing right up.

He immediatly realized that he should have said something different. It wasn't normal for him to forget something like that, and Ara knew that too. Maybe she thought he was lying. He wasn't thinking straight. He needed to get away, quickly. But she acted quicker, and grabbed him before he could get to the door.

"What's up with you?! You've been acting weird since..." she began shouting, but then stopped suddenly.

Her nose had caught something. A smell. No, a scent. It was faint, but also alluring. It was coming from... him. She placed her hands over his helmet and began to pull it up. Oberon shoved her away, putting even too much strength into it, but too late. Ara got pushed way back, his helmet in her hands. Her coat and pantyhose, which were resting on her arms up until then, were sent flying.

Oberon had a pair of fox ears coming out from his head. They looked just like hers, the only real difference being that they were black instead of white. His eyes were still blue, his pupils vertical. And there was... fur on his face. And whiskers coming out from his cheeks. Time seemed to freeze for just a moment. Then the sound of glass cracking suddenly filled the room. The bottle with Ara's scent had been forgotten in her coat, and when he pushed her back the perfume ended up flying from the pocket it was in and landing on the floor. The glass shattered upon impact, its content filling the room far too quickly, her concentrated scent hitting his nostrils with all of its alluring sweetness. Oberon nearly fell to his knees as black tails began to grow from his lower back, the fur on his skin growing thicker, his face becoming a bit... longer.

He raised his gaze, placing it over Ara. His eyes met hers, which were arguably even more confused that his.

Something inside of him snapped.


	28. A Fine Adult

**A Fine Adult**

For a few moments they both remained still, only their tails moving weakly behind them, their gaze locked on each other. Then she noticed... had he gotten a bit taller?

"I think... you should... probably... leave me... alone for a while..."

Saying that turned out to be much harder than he had expected. Not because he had trouble speaking, no. Rather, he just... didn't really want to say that? Something about his voice was off too. Ara, on her part, wasn't sure what to reply. So she simply remained silent as she hesitantly took a step back. As her bare foot touched the ground, he seemed to move forward a bit, only to pull himself back right after. She took another step, then another, and another, slowly, her gaze fixed on him reacting to each one of them. He still hadn't really moved away from his position when she reached the dome's door, but -to her, at the very least- it looked like remaining where he was was difficult for him. Going to the elevator might have been a better idea, but for some reason she... didn't like that. So she simply walked back to the artificial beach, closed the door behind her and leaned against it.

_That... that is definitively my fault..._ she thought, though she still couldn't remember just what it is that she had done to him.

She noticed then that her tails had gone from just one to three without her noticing. Though that was... not too important at the moment. Or so she guessed at least. She let herself fall down along the door, ending up sitting on the ground. She had felt a... scent, back inside there. She wasn't sure what exactly it was, mostly because the content of the bottle of perfume had covered it, but it felt... inviting. Maybe getting further away would have been a good choice, but she decided instead to turn her head around and place her nose next to the jamb of the door, to see if some of that scent could make its way through to her. She realized that her hand had moved closer to her privates and pulled it away. Eventually she heard something from the other side of the door. Footsteps? They sounded a bit... off though. She stood up as she turned around and placed her hand on the knob, but then stopped.

"Oberon? Are you... alright?" she asked.

Nobody answered.

"... Oberon? Are you still there?"

Having received no answer for the second time, she reluctantly decided to open the door and walk in. There, crouched down in a corner of the room, was... was that Oberon?

"... hey..."

There were seven long, black tails -blue near the tip- covering him so she couldn't really tell, but something seemed off. Well, aside from said tails being there in the first place. Slowly, one small step at a time, she approached him. When she had crossed half the room, however, she stopped. That scent she had smelled previously reached her again, and this time she was sure it was coming from him.

"... Oberon... ?"

Upon hearing her again he turned around, and the sight was... surprising. He had grown taller and quite bulkier too. That, combined with the fact that his body was completely covered in thick, dark fur, had thorn his clothes up here and there. His legs had changed just like hers had that time she assaulted him, ripping his shoes apart, and even his hands now had claws and pads. His face had turned into a snout, and his human ears were gone, only the fox ones remaining. Actually, pretty much all of his facial features were gone, his head pretty much being that of a fox now. It was... strange. For some reason, even with only seven tails, he had changed more than she did with nine.

Oberon stared at her for a brief second. She noticed that he was holding the shattered pieces of the bottle of perfume in his hands, though he dropped them as he moved closer to her, at first on all fours and only getting up on his feet after having gotten in front of her. His position was still rather hunched, but despite that he had to look down to stare her in the eyes.

"... Obe... ron... ?" she asked, but the scent coming from him was so strong it was stunning her.

In response, he pushed his snout against her neck and began to smell her, moving his nose up and down her face. Ara caught herself doing the same, burying her nose in the fur on his face, but even after realizing it it took her a while to manage to stop herself. When he finally pulled his head back, she placed her hands around it, without noticing that there was a bit of fur growing on her as well. Then he placed his hand over her shoulder and pushed her away, if only a bit.

"You should... probably... head upstairs" he said, her ears cathing a sort of longing in his voice.

"I... probably should, yes..."

She took a step back, but noticed that his hand wasn't just resting on her shoulder, it was actually grasping it, opposing his own words. So, for one reason or another, she pulled him in closer and hugged him over the shoulders. Despite all the fur covering him, his body was still cold. She could feel his chest moving up and down slowly with every long, deep breath.

"I should, but..."

His hand moved from her shoulder to her back, then down to her legs. He wrapped his oddly long fingers around her thighs and pulled her up, Ara ending up in a sort of sitting position. She traced her nose along his lips. Some words came to his mind, but they failed to make their way to his mouth, and he remained silent. Somewhat awkwarly, he then pushed his own nose against her. Since the bottle of perfume had broken, her scent was already filling the room, but being so close to her still managed to make her fragrance stronger. Several thoughts began to fade from his mind, fully replaced by instincts and urges he wasn't meant to have.

Ara, on her part, seemed to not be exactly in her right state of mind either. Her breathing was more ragged than it should have been, her face was flushed, and her tails had grown to a dangerously high number. She pulled his face in closer, and in response he began to lick her neck, his tongue being longer and rougher than it was supposed to, occasionally sliding underneath the steel collar she still had on. He stepped to the side a bit and dropped -somewhat gently- her on the table, his hands moving to her back again. She could feel his claws grazing against her skin as they slowly teared through her clothes, his tongue running back and forth over her neck before moving to her mouth.

She parted her lips and let it in, savoring it with her own as it slowly moved around within her cheeks. Then, slowly but steadily, his hands began to move apart, tearing her shirt open as they did so, cutting up her bra as well in the process. Oberon then pulled his tongue back and closed his long mouth over the front of her clothes, biting down on them and further tearing them, leaving her upper body fully bare.

He placed his mouth over her breast and started sucking, all the while continuing to take in her scent, his hot breath a stark contrast to his cold touch, his soft pads running over her back, his oddly sharp teeth occasionally grazing her skin. Slowly he moved his head down, his tongue scratching against her skin, running over her belly before reaching her skirt. Pushing it up with his snout, Oberon closed his mouth over her entrance, his hands holding her still.

Ara felt him licking her privates, the roughness of his tongue sending jolts up her spine with every motion, her back arching a bit every time he grazed her clit, her breath interrupted every now and then by a soft moan. She placed her hands behind his head as he pushed his tongue inside, deeper and deeper, and when he began sucking on her too she leaned forward, as much as she could, trying to take in his scent. The pleasure slowly built up, Oberon eventually starting to drink her juices as they flowed right into his mouth, until Ara began to bite down on her own flesh, her fangs digging into her lips. At the same time, he too began to sink his claws into her flesh, small streams of blood pouring from her skin. Yet she hardly felt that, and as the pleasure neared its peak only to stop right before it and die down due to her needed trigger being lacking, her mind cleared a bit. Apparently the painkiller was, at least in some quantity, still within her veins.

"W... wait a... moment..." she said between her breaths as Oberon moved his head back up, against her chest.

She tried to push him away, but couldn't. Maybe her limbs were weak. Maybe he was just stronger. Maybe she actually didn't really want to make any space between the two of them.

"H-hold on, Oberon..."

But by that point all his ears could do was merely hear, not listen. So he simply grabbed her and turned her around. Ara found herself lying on her back, and soon after felt his fingers placed between her legs while his other hand slind beneath her, closing around her breasts. She gasped as his index and middle finger slid right inside her, his fur getting drenched in the process.

"W-wait, this... this shouldn't..." she tried to say, but the constant jolts of pleasure reaching her brain, combined with everything else, were making it hard to think straight.

She squirmed around, trying to get away, and in response Oberon moved his other hand above her back, pushing her down. Her tails waving all around him, her ears twitching with every thrust and motion of his fingers, she kept trying to get away, to lift herself, although the feeling that something was wrong was getting weaker and weaker.

Then the table broke.

That took both of them by surprise. From simply looking at it, one might not have guessed it, but they were both actually putting quite a lot of force in their limbs. They fell to the ground, albeith they barely felt the impact, and Ara ended up with Oberon lying on top of her. Because of that, and also because unlike hers, his mind had currently lost all conscious thinking, he reacted faster than her. Without bothering to get up, he took her head in his hand to held it in place and closed his mouth around one of her fox ears, not quite biting but still putting enough force into it to make her feel the pressure of his fangs.

That simple gesture proved to be surprisingly effective. Not really being sure why, Ara found herself standing perfectly still, the only exception being her other ear and her tails, which were still moving around, although not as much. Though that was, at least to a degree, because they were partially pushed down by his body. After having confirmed that she was no longer struggling, Oberon placed his fingers back inside her and started scratching her from within again. With his fingers right over her face, Ara couldn't help but breath in his scent, making her even more dizzy. They remained like that for a while, but once again, when she tried to dig her claws into her own palms -at the same time, she felt his teeth pushing down on her ear, enough to hurt her a bit-, the pain turned out to not be enough, albeith she still felt it more than she had done a bit earlier.

With frustration at yet another ruined climax came another bit of clarity of mind. She tried to push herself up, but it was like his teeth over her ear had turned her muscles off, even though he had released some of the pressure on it.

... why was she trying to get away, again?

The answer didn't quite come to her mind, and while she felt like that was something she had to do, she also had a feeling that what was happening was completely normal. Confused, unsure about what to do, she ended up remaining still even as Oberon moved his hand from her face to the floor to support himself a bit.

Then, without any warning, she felt his whole length penetrate her as a sound she'd have associated with a fox rathen than with a person left his mouth. His jaws releasing her ear, Ara let out a loud gasp before taking a deep breath and trying to crawl away. Noticing that, he moved his hands right over hers, pinning them down. And with her legs lying beneath his, Ara found herself immobilized as he began moving his hips back and forth, each thrust forcing her voice out of her own lungs. He arched his back to better reach her neck, moved her hair out of the way with his mouth and started licking her, her body beginning to tremble as every motion scratched her inner walls, wave upon wave of pleasure riverberating inside her body as her muscles began to tense up, her insides clamping down on his member as her teeth once again dug into her own lips, his fangs sinking into her shoulder enough to leave marks.

Then he stopped, and at the same time she felt him getting bigger at the base of his length. The sudden increase in pressure against her insides, quickly followed by the release of his seed within her, should have been all that she needed to reach her climax, and yet the painkiller was still effective. Just barely, but enough to keep her right beneath the point she needed to reach. Her pleasure turning once again into frustration, Ara tried to catch her breath, and while she couldn't quite see given her position, the sounds she was hearing suggested that Oberon was doing the same as well.

She wasn't sure how long they had remained like that, but at one point she had realized that she was trying to move her hips. His knot, however, had the two of them locked in place in their joining, and all she could get from her own motions was a very mild stimulation, something that at the moment was beyond frustrating. Then, finally, she felt his member go back to its previous size. He pulled out, and as he did so Ara turned around. They stared at each other. Her whiskers moved alluringly as her lips slowly turned into an inviting smile. She bent her legs at the knees, the joint no longer being that of an human, and outstretched her arms towards him, her fur-covered hands open and inviting, her eight tails waving softly.

With a sound that one couldn't quite describe as anything other than a fow's low howl Oberon, who had gotten on his knees -so to call them- adjusted his body on top of her. Pushing her legs down as he positioned himself, her scent completely clouding his mind, he lied down enough for her arms to close around him as he entered her again.

For the second time they mated, their voices mixing together in the same way their tails were coiling around the other's. Sweat ran down her skin and entralled by her aroma, Oberon licked it off her face, until she pulled him closer, embracing him, the difference in height then preventing them from looking at each other's face. Ara's fur pricked up as she dug her claws in his back, drops of red stayning his black fur. At the same time, he pushed his own nails into her flesh. And, maybe because the painkiller's effect was finally over, maybe for some other reason, she finally got the trigger she needed, her breaths coming to an alt as her muscles tensed up, her arms pulling him in even further as her own hips kept moving, the blissfull feeling echoing and reverberating through her flesh and bones for but a few, incredibly long seconds.

Her lungs started tacking in air again, and neither of them stopped moving, their bodies pressed against each other, sounds closer to those of animals than to those of people filling the room until, eventually, he stopped, locking himself in place again as his seed filled her once more.

In what might be considered a short break, the two of them caught their breath, and eventually Oberon pulled himself back, getting on his feet. As he did so, a sticky fluid began to overflow from between Ara's legs. She got up on her knees and slowly moved forward, then placed her hands around his member and brought it to her mouth, pushing it inside as much as she could, her tongue running all over it as she moved her head back and forth, her mate vocalizing his pleasure as she did so. Then she pulled out, briefly, to adjust her posture, and in that moment he grabbed her. In little more than a blink of an eye, Ara found herself suspended in the hair, held upside down, and felt his mouth between her legs.

Taking his length back between her lips, she went back to what she was doing, her mind equally focused on the heath spreading from her privates all the way to the tip of her fingers as well as on the member in her mouth, sloppy sounds coming from her cheeks every time she moved her head back and forth, occasionally stopping to let some air into her lungs. At one point she felt him throb, but she simply kept moving until his knot swelled up again, in a way that she would have surely found uncomfortable -at the very least- had her body been normal at the moment. Without the means -and probably without the intention either- of pulling her head back as the knot was too large to get through her lips, she felt his seed flow through her mouth, its strong, bitter taste running over her tongue and down her throat, its scent filling her nose. Being unable to continue, her attention moved completely to her own privates and to the rough tongue that was moving around within them, occasionally pulling out to run over her entrance, sending warm shivers along her spine every time it rubbed against her clit or any of her sentitive points.

Eventually, Ara clawed at him again, feeling his own fingers digging into her flesh in return, the pleasure resonating with itself as her body trembled. Then, as the knot deflated, Oberon pulled her away a bit and placed her back on the ground, rather roughly.

She took a few moments to catch her breath, her tails waving seductively behind her, then turned around and walked to the wall on all fours, slowly, before getting back on her padded feet and placing her hands on the wall, sticking her rear out and swaying it softly, some of his seed still dripping from within her, her tails moved to the sides to expose her back. More than the sight, however, what lured him in was still her scent, a fragrance so strong it had basically overwritten everything else in his nostrils. He stepped forward, moving on all fours too until he reached her, then stood up and lied forward, his hands resting over hers, pinning them to the wall.

Once more he penetrated her, their voices mixing together again, consciousness drifting farther and farther away, nothing but urges and primal feelings filling their minds, their bodies moving in unison. They changed position, over and over again, their bodies melting into each other as their world shrunk more and more, until nothing but their partner was left.

A few minutes later, however -or... had it been hours? Or something even longer ?- a third voice echoed in the room.

"This is a sight I never would have expected to behold"

The two foxes stopped and parted, putting as little distance as possible between them as they turned to the new arrival. A fox too, albeith lacking their human traits, sharing the same colors as Ara, bug far larger than both of them, even combined. How exactly she had gotten inside there, one could only wonder. Her mere presence felt heavy. Ara stood between her and Oberon, her fur prickled, an hostile expression on her face. He, on his part, was moving his gaze quickly between the two females, something apparently confusing him.

"Oh dear. That is a fine male you got yourself there, but I assure you, you have no need to defend it from me" the large fox said as she sat down, her tails wrapping around her legs "You there, sleep" she then ordered as her eyes fell on Oberon.

The very moment their eyes met, her command took place, and he immediatly fell to the ground, his body turning back to normal rather quickly.

"And you, little Ara" she added as the girl turned around and got down on the floor, pushing her head against her mate as if to wake him up "I believe you should come back now"

Nothing happened, at first. But her words echoed within the smaller fox's ears, which began to twitch wildly. Then, silently, her body began to change. Her tails faded as if they were made of air. Her fur retracted. Her ears disappeared into her hair, and her human ones appeared again. The joints of her legs went back to those of a normal person, her fangs and claws disappeared. Her hair and eyes regained their natural color. In less than a minute, Ara had gone back to her normal appearance. She fell completely to the floor, only to get back up a few moments later. She yawned, as if she had just woken up from a long nap, and as she turned around, her eyes still half closed, she saw her.

"... ... E-eun?!"

"Dear me, have I by chance arrived before my letter?"

"Eh? T-the letter, right! No, I've received that, but... wait..." she added, her voice dying down as she noticed a few things.

The broken table. The fact that she was naked, her clothes reduced to little more than tattered rags. The... somewhat large amount of blood around the room -if not for the fact that her transformation greatly improved, among other things, the speed at which she healed, she would have found several marks over her skin, both of teeth and nails- and the other kind of fluids all around the floor, with one kind of them overflowing from between her legs. She... guessed she had some in her mouth too. She turned around and saw Oberon, unconscious, his clothes in a similar condition to hers. He, too, had gone back to his normal appearance, and just like her, he had no traces of her fangs and nails over his skin.

"W... what did I... no, rather, what... why... ?" she asked, more to herself than to anyone else as she realized what she and Oberon had been doing for... how long, exactly?

"I am most surprised, little Ara. Never would I have thought you would mark a male as yours. I can, at last, drop the 'little'"

"I what?!" she shouted back, a storm of conflicting emotions in her mind, though they were still mostly clouded in confusion.

"I believe this conversation would benefit from better circumstances. You might want to take a bath and maybe rest a bit. You should also eat something I believe. And, if my memories of you are right, you would be more at ease talking with some clothes on"

"T-that's... r... right..." she replied as she timidly turned around to look at Oberon.

"I will wait for you outside this building. Take your time"

When Ara turned around, Eun was gone. Though she couldn't have possibly fit through that door with her size. Her gaze went back to Oberon. She remained there for a while, thinking, then stood up, walked around a bit and grabbed her pantyhose, which were lying forgotten on the floor. Seems like the clothes she didn't have on when they... started managed to survive. She thought about putting them on, but wearing pantyhose with nothing else on would have probably been more embarassing than simply being naked. She put her shoes on instead, and then stumbled upon her coat. She ripped the long sleeves off and wrapped them around her own chest and waist, then put the rest of the garment on Oberon before grabbing him and walking to the elevator while carrying him on his back. Doing that while in that attire was quite awkward, but it was better than being naked. And, truth be told, compared to everything else that was rather easy to bear. In all honesty, his helmet and her chastity belt were still intact too, but for one reason or another she decided to leave those where they were. Her cheeks as red as they could get, she pushed the button that called the elevator and waited, lost in her thoughts.

"... you can let me down"

"Kyaaa!"

She nearly threw him away when his voice suddenly brought her back from whenever her mind had taken her. Oberon, who somehow managed to put a bit of grace in his landing, got on his feet. They silently stared at the floor, or maybe at each other's feet, Ara holding her improvised clothes to make sure they wouldn't fall, Oberon keeping the coat closed with his hand. They remained there like that for a short while, then the elevator arrived, its doors opening.

"You... can go ahead. I'll come up later"

"... a... alright"

Trying to act as normally as possible, and most likely failing, Ara walked in and headed up, reached the bathroom and entered the shower. She wasn't sure for how long she had stayed there, but when she walked out she took a look out of a window and noticed that the sun was still up. Did that mean that the evening had yet to arrive? Or that they'd been down there the whole day and night, and maybe more? She got herself dried up, took some spare clothes from her room and, finally realizing how hungry she was, headed to the kitchen. There she scrambled quite a lot of food together into a sort of meal and had... lunch? A snack? Breakfast? Dinner? ... whatever. While she was cleaning up however, Oberon walked in. Just like her, he had taken a shower -well, maybe a bath, she couldn't really tell- and put on some spare clothes.

"I... think I have to apologize"

"I... don't think so"

As for which one of them said what, that is debatable.

"Could you... wait here for a moment?" she then asked.

Oberon simply nodded in response and went to take something to drink. Ara walked out and found Eun outside, lying on the concrete, bathing in the sunlight. Compared to earlier, her size was much smaller, albeith she was still far larger than any ordinary fox, even without considering her nine tails.

"I don't mean to bother you, Eun, but... I was hoping you could, well... explain one thing to me"

"Ask away, Ara"

She had always called her "little Ara", for as long as she could remember, and that simple change in the way the fox addressed her felt... weird.

"Do you... do you mind if we go inside first?"

"Why, not at all" the fox replied as she stood up and entered the menagerie.

A few moments later, the three of them were standing in the kitchen. The fox sat down, as calm as one could possibly look, while Oberon greeted her with a silent bow. Both him and Ara were standing. While her size had greatly decreased from before, Eun's presence hadn't gotten any less heavy.

"You want to ask me something, Ara, and I will be happy to answer" she began the conversation, her eyes fixed on the steel collar around her neck "But there is one thing I would like to know. What have you been up to, these last weeks?"

The girl gulped. There was a chance that Eun might go and... rough up Eve really badly, were she to find out all the details. And there was no telling what she could do if she found out that the whole debt had actually been orchestrated by Eve herself, although Ara still ignored that fact.

"This is..."

"I do not remember asking you anything" the fox interrupted Oberon, who then fell silent.

_What... what do I tell her... actually, what does she know to begin with? Could she already be aware of everything?_

Ara started to sweat, and the fox noticed it right away.

"... I will rephrase that. Is there something you would need or want my help for?"

"W-well, there is... one thing I was hoping you could tell me, but... why are you here? I mean! It's not that I don't want you around! The opposite actually, it's nice to see you again after all this time, just... this is so... out of nowhere..."

"My residual essence within you. It had been dissipating slowly as it was meant to, until a few weeks ago, when I felt it stir up again. At first I thought it might have been a single event, but then it kept happening, with mostly increasing intensity too. That had me... perplexed. So, Ara... is anything wrong?" she asked again, and this time there was some concern in her voice.

Hearing that was... a relief, in a way. But Ara kept her gaze to the floor. On one hand, she felt like she did own Eun at least some sort of explanation. On the other, the fox was a maternal figure of sort to her and, well, telling what she had been doing during those past weeks to someone who was like a parent was... awkward couldn't even begin to describe how she'd have felt telling her any of that.

"I... I got a job here, and it's... how can I say it... things can get quite... hectic sometimes, but..."

The fox stared at her silently for a few seconds.

"... let us try a different approach. You said you had something to ask me. Go ahead"

"R-right, that" Ara replied, blushing at the memories.

She tried to narrate what had happened under the rain, leaving out some details and hoping that what she told her would be enough, but the question that followed crushed that hope.

"And how did you get into such a state, dare I ask?"

"T... that..."

"Have you been in any sort of danger lately? Has your life been threatened during these past weeks?"

"Eh? N-no, of course not" she immediatly replied to the question, though she definitively hadn't seen it coming.

Which left only one option. Those were Eun's own residuals inside of Ara, she knew what could have caused the reactions she had perceived. Either especially great danger, or especially great arousal. Knowing Ara, she had sort of expected the first to be the case rather than the latter, which is why she began to worry then the feeling kept presenting itself over and over again, but she had denied that, so... there was also the fact that normal sexual activities shouldn't have been enough to cause changes as great as those she had felt, but Ara didn't seem willing to talk about the details, and Eun had no intention of forcing them out of her. She might have done just that once, but not now. The fox's gaze then turned to Oberon.

"... this is... quite amusing" she commented "But also possibly quite bothersome. I remember you from back when Ara was still traveling with her companions. What is your current relationship with her?"

"We are coworkers. Actually, we were until just yesterday. Technically speaking, her contract is now over"

Ara fiddled around with her own fingers upon hearing that.

"This is going nowhere" Eun said back, the annoyance in her voice causing her interlocutors to instinctively take a step back, albeith a tiny one "So I will be as clear as possible. Ara, what you did was placing some of your essence inside of him while taking some from him in equal part. This is not something humans can normally do, but I believe I have no need to explain why you in particular were able to perform such an act. For the very same reason, some of my own essence ended up inside of him"

"... c... and can we... well... t-take it back... out... ?" Ara asked in a low voice.

"I believe not"

"..."

"..."

"I have a question" Oberon then spoke, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

"... I might as well hear it"

"What are, exactly, the consequences?"

Truth be told, he had a good enough idea about that by that point, but since Eun was there he saw no reason not to ask her directly.

"I believe there is no need to explain what changes your body, artificial as it might normally be, will go through occasionally. As for your attraction to Ara..."

As she said that, the girl lowered her gaze a bit, for one reason or another. Oberon kind of wanted to do the same, but kept himself from going through with that.

"... the exact consequences can vary depending on what was impressed on the part of her she placed inside of you. But from what I can tell, Ara made it so that, if left unsatisfied long enough, your lust for her will grow out of control"

"My-"

"His w-what?!" Ara interrupted him, her voice completely overshadowing his.

"A rather standard procedure, I have to say. Back when I was not as old, it was extremely common for female foxes to engrave such sorts of conditionings on males of their choosing"

It also mostly happened with those that became part of a female's harem rather than to those who were picked as more... traditional partners, but Eun decided to keep that part to herself. As for Ara, her eyes grew wider and wider as the fox's words sank into her mind, their meaning echoing inside her head.

"You're kidding?!"

"Oh, not at all. I actually mean to congratulate you for this, Ara. From my point of view, this marks your entrance into adulthood. I am happy to see that"

"M... my en... i-into ad..." she stuttered, stunned.

"Your essence might need a little time to properly stabilize inside your male, but this is to be expected. I believe you will do a cleaner job the next time"

"W-why would there even be a next time?!"

... why not. Seeing her so frantic was amusing her, so Eun decided to go back on her previous decision.

"If you ever decide to make an harem for yourself, in which case you would need additional males. ... or females too, if you so desire" the fox said, and while it might have been somewhat hard to tell, she was clearly smiling "Your connection to me would also give the members of your harem a respectable enough social standing among us foxes, I can even picture some asking to join on their own" she added as she waved all nine her tails, flaunting them "Oh, and do not worry about having to build it up quickly. I believe that your actions stitched what was left of myself inside of you to your own being. I cannot really picture you ever going back to being a normal human now, so feel free to take your time" she finally concluded, her smirk saying that she quite liked what she had just stated.

Ara, on her part, tried to say something, but found herself completely speechless.

"... do I have any saying in this?" Oberon asked.

"Of course not"

_... figures..._

Eun wondered if the fact that Ara seemed to have lost her self-control too was due to the exchange of essence, maybe she had used his to put some sort of conditioning on herself as well, but... knowing her, her going wild like that most likely had more to do with her own character than to some external influence, with Eun's own essence simply making it a bit easier for her to let loose. Probably. The fox then stood up.

"There is one last thing I have to ask, Ara. Are you fertile during this time of the month?"

"I'm f- w-why are you asking that?!"

"I concur" Oberon chimed in, failing to completely hide the fact that the question bothered him too "That question is pointless, since I'm sterile"

At those words, Eun bursted out laughing.

"You truly underestimate the extent of the changes your own body goes through when instincts call! Oh, worry not, it is only natural for you to be ignorant on these matters"

It was hard to say which one among Ara and Oberon had been more shocked by those words. Eun then stood up.

"It has been a pleasure talking to you again, Ara, but I am afraid I have my own matters to attend to. If you ever find yourself in need of my assistance, or merely wish to have another talk, do not hesitate to contact me"

With those words, the large fox headed to the door, but stopped there and turned around.

"Oh, and if there truly is a cub -or, who knows, more than one- in your womb, I will demand informations. Your children would, after all, be grandchildren of mine. I might be looking forward to it" she said before turning around her leaving, her laugh growing more and more distant.

Ara and Oberon found themselves alone. Slowly, they turned their gaze to each other. They remained there like that for a long while, a storm of thoughts and feelings raging in their minds, but none of that managed to make its way to their throats.

Silence filled the room.


	29. Maybe Tomorrow

**Maybe Tomorrow**

"... I..." Oberon eventually spoke, after what felt like hours "I'll contact the mistress about removing your collar"

"S-sure..."

He took a step, then another. On the third one, however, Ara stopped him.

"Just... don't tell her anything about... well... this" she said, her hands over her belly.

Technically speaking, that question was pointless. There were cameras all over the menagerie, so Eve would eventually find out about everything on her own anyway. Sure, Oberon could avoid talking about that part and let his mistress learn of it from the recordings, but doing something like that would surely anger her. That said, he... didn't really want to tell her about it himself.

"I won't" he replied after a not overly short silence.

Then, somewhat hesitantly, he walked away, leaving her alone.

It was only then that Ara realized that, being so used to wearing a chastity belt, she had forgotten to put normal panties on. She walked back to her room with surprising calm, took out some underwear made of fabric rather than metal and put them on. She was still quite... stunned. On one hand, Eun's visit went much more smoothly than she had hoped, since the fox didn't find out what Ara had been doing those past weeks. At the same time it went so, so much worse than she had feared. She let herself fall on the bed, trying to fully process what she had been told.

Time went by, slowly. The sun eventually began to set, but all she did was roll around a bit over the sheets, lost in her thoughts. She considered taking out Obe to use him as a body pillow a couple of time, but ultimately decided not to. It was probably around dinner time when someone knocked on her door.

"... Oberon?"

"It's me, yes"

She waited a couple of moments before saying anything else. They definitively needed to have a talk though, and maybe that was exactly why he was there. She actually didn't feel like she had sorted herself out enough for such a talk, but decided to go with it anyway. She got up and took a couple of deep breaths before answering.

"Come in"

"I didn't mean to disturb you" Oberon said as he walked in, half a dozen of crying infants with whiskers and fox ears in his arms "But our babies are hungry"

Ara woke up nearly screaming, her forehead covered in sweat. She looked around, gasping, and noticed that it was night. Realizing that she had fallen asleep at some point, she took a long, deep breath, relieved. She got up, made sure that Obe was still where he was supposed to be then headed downstairs, to what was most likely going to be a midnight snack. In the kitchen, however, she found Oberon, sitting in front of a cup of... something. It looked like wine, but it also seemed to be steaming hot. He turned around when she arrived.

"You woke up awfully early today" he replied after a somewhat long, silent stare.

"Or maybe incredibly late" she said back.

A few seconds of nothing followed. Then, getting over her hesitation, she went to grab something to eat -though she had suddenly lost a lot of appetite- before sitting down, right on the other end of the table from where he was.

The following hours turned out to be painfully close to torture.

Oberon would occasionally drink a mouthful or two of whatever it was that he had prepared, spending the rest of the time staring at his own hands resting on the table. Ara, on her part, ate so slowly it looked like she'd rather bite down on electric cables than food, all the while keeping her gaze fixed on a meaningless spot of the table. She wanted to get up and leave, in all honesty, but at the same time she was afraid that doing so would have been quite... rude to him. And, to tell the truth, Oberon was actually having really similar, if not actually identical thoughts.

At one point some rays of sunlight began to pour in through the window. That's when one of them decided that maybe, just maybe, it was time for someone to say something.

"... so... was that bottle of perfume yours?" she asked.

"... yes, it was" he replied.

Yeah, maybe they could have a normal conversation after all. Well, they still weren't looking at each other, but at least they were talking.

"What kind of perfume was that? I, well, I tried it but I couldn't smell anything from it"

She kind of wanted to apologize for having accidentally broken the vial -well, they kind of did that together but whatever- but decided not to as that would have meant bringing up what happened soon after said incident, and that would have meant waving goodbye to their normal conversation.

"I guess that's because it was based on your scent"

The normal conversation did, indeed, wave goodbye.

"On... me?"

"Do you remember that time we had to make soap because the shops were closed? I took the chance to make that perfume using the bubbles filled with your scent"

"And... why did you make it?"

"I think Eun made it clear enough"

"... I want to hear it from you" she insisted, her gaze finally moving to him.

At first, Oberon didn't reply, remaining silent instead. After a while he turned to Ara, their eyes meeting, and then he finally answered.

"To put it bluntly, I am attracted to you. Physically, at the very least. I have been for... quite a while" he said -to her and to himself-, his mind going as far back as to that morning, not long after Ara arrived to the menagerie. He couldn't really deny the fact anymore.

"I... well, I... can't say that I dislike it..." she said back, keeping her gaze on him "But... I-I'm honestly not sure what to do right now, I mean... I dragged you into this mess, and now you're... well... it's not like I've always been happy about how you treated me either... no, that's not the point..."

"I wouldn't say that I dislike it entirely, either. Though I believe the situation is much more troublesome for you than it is for me"

"You're the one who risks to lose control though" she replied. She wasn't ignoring the fact that she could let a bit -"a bit"- too loose too, but Oberon's case did seem more severe, at least based on the previous night.

"That's true, but the one who has to deal with that when it happens is you"

"And... how are you feeling? Right now?"

"Quite... normal. Though I'm afraid that is no guarantee. I'll make sure to inform you when my urges get too... you know" he said, his voice not as calm and composed as it usually was.

"And... about the other... fact..." she added, her hands moving over her womb.

"I believe I already know the answer, but I'd like it if you let me ask this anyway. Are there any chances Eun was just messing with us?"

"I'm afraid she was serious"

"Then... what do you want to do?"

Ara remained silent for a while, eventually lowering her gaze. When she finally settled on an answer, however, she looked back up.

"I wouldn't say that I don't ever want to have children, but at the moment... I really don't think I'm ready"

Much to her surprise, Oberon's shoulder relaxed suddenly, as if he had just gotten a great weight off his back, and he took a breath of relief. Then, realizing what he had just done, he took his usual composure back.

"I'm relieved to hear that. I'm... nowhere near ready for something like that either"

Then he noticed the way Ara was staring at him. She was... maybe not exactly bewildered, but still.

"I thought you'd want me to help with the child, or children, in case your answer had been different, but if I assumed wrong and you don't want me involved I apologize. I would understant perfectly"

"N-no, that's not it! Quite the contrary! It's just... I'm not really used to seeing you being so... expressive"

"... I don't mean to belittle the effect this news had on you, far from it, but please consider it from my side. Producing offspring has never been something I could do. I would probably be able to learn how to assemble some low-tier nasods, mid-tier at best if the mistress ordered me to, but they'd be nowhere near sentient beings. Reproduction has never, and was never meant to be, one of my functions. And now I'm suddenly told I might become a father. It's..."

He didn't finish that last sentence, but his point had gotten through, or at least he guessed it did.

"So... are you actually pregnant? ... sorry, it's probably still too early to tell"

"Do we, by chance, have any... contraceptives here?"

"No. There has never been any need for those here. Until now, at least"

"I had guessed so. Then, I guess I'll... have to go buy some"

"I'm afraid we'd better stock up on them"

"We... we probably should, yes. We sh... should s-sleep t... together e-every now and t-then r-right? To... keep you from... well..." Ara said, her face growing redder and redder with every word, though she managed to not avert her gaze.

"I'm sorry, but... yes"

"T-this is my fault too, you don't need to apologize"

Then, a long silence fell between them again. They didn't really know how long it would take for him to... snap the way he had done back underground, but if possible, they'd rather not have that happen again. ... did they?

"Thinking about it... would pills really work? I'm not an expert in this field, but those are made for humans I believe?"

"That's... a scarily valid question..."

If those didn't work, Eve might be able to produce some that did, but... Oberon kept himself from saying that.

"Do we have pen and paper around? I hadn't quite... processed everything when she was here, but I'd like to ask her a few things now. I know where I have to send my letters to have them reach her"

"Yes, we do have those. I'll bring them to your room" he said as he stood up, but stopped before taking a single step.

"... right" he added as he took something from his pocket and made it slide across the table, all the way to Ara "The mistress sent this, saying she will contact us around midday to talk about what happened. I still had to inform her"

Her hand grasped the object before it could fall off the table. A key. Right.

"And... how much did you tell her?" Ara asked as she ran it over the steel choker around her neck, quickly finding the keyhole.

"I said nothing about the... possible pregnancy"

"... thanks"

With a single turn of her hand, followed by a dry sound, the collar unlocked and she removed it, placing it on the table. Not having that around her neck felt almost weird, but definitively nice, especially because it meant her debt was extinguished.

"So, it's... over" she said as she stood up.

"... is it?" he asked.

She didn't answer, though she was fairly sure she knew what he meant.

"I'll go... shopping, I guess" she said.

"I can go buy those myself if you want"

"I'd rather do it personally"

"I see"

"About what you said earlier" Oberon added before she could leave "I... believe I did treat you unfairly in some occasions" he said, his mind going back especially to the first days she had spent there "While I can't go against the mistress's orders, I could have probably taken a different approach to follow them. For what it's worth, I apologize for that"

"I... appreciate it. Thanks"

A brief silence followed. Then Ara left the kitchen, walked out of the menagerie and then into the streets. She came back quite a while later, two bags in her hands -though they were both actually almost empty-, and carried them to her room. There she found, indeed, pen and paper. She took a couple of pills from a small box she had taken out of the bags, then spent the following hour or so writing a couple of rather lengthy letters. After that she went back to the kitchen, both the letters and one of the bags in her hands. There she found Oberon, intent on making lunch

"I'll... leave this one here" she said when he turned around, her hand still on the bag.

"Alright"

The meal went by silently. Oberon spent the time holding a book in his hands, but Ara wasn't sure he ever really turned any page. Then a sound distracted them. They were expecting a call from Eve, but what they heard was the door opening, immediatly followed by a series of quick steps. Then Eve herself walked inside the kitchen.

"Mist-" Oberon started to say as he got up, but before he could finish his mistress had already gotten up to him and, well, slapped him.

The thundering strike sent him flying across the room, all the way to the wall, in an almost comical way.

 _It had been a while since the last time this happened_ he thought as he fell to the floor before getting back up _I'm not sure I missed it though_

"Just dare to not inform me of something like this again and I'll seriously consider formatting you" she nearly shouted, her drones appearing bigger than usual as they floated around her.

"My apologies, mistress, it's just..." he began to say as he got on his knee.

"W-wait, what's going -what?" Ara asked, interrupting him.

"And you" Eve hissed at her as she turned around "... are you alright?" she asked, her voice taking on a much calmer tone.

"Eh? I-I'm fine. I think?"

"I'll take your word for it"

"So..."

One of Eve's drones pushed a chair out of the way before swelling up enough for her to sit on it while Ophelia, who had most likely arrived right after her mistress but went unnoticed due to the commotion, placed a glass in front of her and poured what looked like wine in it. She took a somewhat long sip before speaking.

"I know everything" she said as she gestured Oberon to get up "What do you plan to do now?"

"E... everything as in..."

"Everything. He failed to mention one of the two most important parts though" she replied, her eyes moving briefly to the side to pierce Oberon with their gaze before going back on Ara.

The now debt-free girl, who had previously gotten up, went back to her seat, albeith nervously.

"What do you plan to do now, I asked"

"About the..."

Eve raised her fist to slam it on the table before stopping halfway through the gesture, bringing her arm back down in a more composed position.

"You no longer owe me anything. You are free to go back to your life whenever you want. That's what I'd have liked to tell you. But from what I gathered, either he gets to scr- to sleep with you every now and then, or I end up with one of my servants turned into an unusable mating fox"

Ara had to keep herself from shivering. Her voice was surprisingly calm, but everything else was telling another story. She coulnd't quite remember the last time she had seen Eve so upset.

_I admit that this is partially my fault, since I personally framed you into contracting a fake debt and none of this would have happened hadn't I decided to use you in an experiment to improve the quality of the products of this establishment. Because of that_

"I won't ask you to remain here, but if you do decide to leave I'll have to insist that you take Oberon with you. I can assign him tasks he can attend to even while off to wherever you want to go, as long as it's not some isolated cave underground in the middle of nowhere, but he'll turn into an useless pile of furry metal if you're not around to keep him functional"

"W-well... my house is still where I left it so... I was thinking of going back there and... you know... go back to normal... I guess?"

Eve's gaze turned to Oberon again, who didn't dare to speak again without being asked to, especially after having seen her current state of mind. As for Eve herself, her thoughts went back to the letter Oberon had sent her a few days earlier. She took a sip from the glass in front of her before continuing.

"... there is, of course, another option. How would you feel about keeping your job here?"

"... come again?"

"Do you want to keep working here?"

"Y-you mean... are you asking me to keep doing..."

"No, of course not. There are other tasks to attend to here, what do you think I have Oberon stationed here for?" she replied, then her mind went back to all the recordings she had seen "... granted, if you want to keep doing that as well I won't stop you. Though we'd have to rediscuss your paycheck in that case. You'd be getting at most a fifth of what you did previously"

"We can't renegotiate something we haven't even talked about once to begin wi-"

"Twelve thousands a week, with an extra for additional work during the Fair, if you happen to still be here when the time comes. As for the working hours and all the other details, you can decide on them with Oberon and inform me later. If you do accept this offer, the pay for the other kind of job will drop to a tenth of what it was until yesterday"

_S-she sure throws around huge sums like it's nothing..._

"I don't mean to pressure you, but I'd very much like to have an answer before leaving"

"W-well, I..."

"There is one last thing I'd like to say before hearing your decision. If the pills end up not working" -Ara's face turned red- "Feel free to ask me for help. I'll be more than happy to oblige" Eve said, with a soft smile that threatened some ulterior motive.

"I-I'll keep that in mind"

"Very well then, what is your answer?"

"I... I'm not sure, I just..."

Eve tapped her fingers on the table, fast.

"A-alright, I accept!" Ara said, her voice a bit louder than it had need to be.

"Perfect" the owner of the place -and of two of the presents- said as she stood up "Ophelia, prepare the carriage. Oberon, come with me for a minute. Until next time, Ara" she concluded as she left the room, followed by her servants and her drones, which had gone back to their standard size.

Left alone, Ara sighed before dropping her head to the table. She felt like she had just been played. Again, maybe.

_... that pay is really awesome though..._

Meanwhile, right in front of the door, Eve and Oberon were standing. Well, she was standing, he was bowing. She had a folded letter in her hand.

"I guess this isn't what you had in mind when you asked me to hire her as a more traditional employee" she said as she placed her gaze over it for a brief moment "But this should be good enough, especially in light of the recent events"

For a split second, a blue light flashed from her fingers, together with a faint zap, and the paper combusted, quickly fading into a puff of smoke.

"Don't give me any more reasons to come here when I hadn't already planned to"

"I won't"

"... and remove the cameras in her room. I think I can let her have some more privacy now"

Then, without waiting for a reply, she walked out and left. Oberon waited until he could hear the carriage moving before getting back up and going to the kitchen.

"Well, that was... something" Ara commented "Is your... cheek alright?"

"Don't worry, that used to happen quite often"

"Really?"

"The mistress used to... not have many ways to let off her steam"

"That sounds harsh"

"It sounds much worse than it actually was"

"If you say so..."

"Would seven hours a day, five days a week be alright with you?"

_That's... a lot less than what I would have expected from the pay Eve mentioned..._

"Well... yeah, sure. I guess"

"I don't mean to be rude but, while I have neither the right nor the intention of making you live here like you had to do until know, I believe it'd be better if you... avoided going back and forth from your house every day "

"I was thinking that too, honestly. I don't have a carriage like Eve, and walking would take way too long to do that everyday"

_... well, I guess I might be able to afford one soon though... no, wait, don't let the money get to your head._

"I'd still like to go back one of these days, at least to make sure the place is still standing"

"If you want some help with cleaning or the likes, I wouldn't mind giving you an hand"

Ara's mind went back to her house. It'd been more than two months since she had left, and... she was going to find a lot of dust to wipe off, at least.

"... yeah, I could use some help. As for my... new job here, let's say..."

"Right. Give me a few minutes, I'll be right back" he answered as he walked off.

And, just as he had said, he came back not long after, with a book at least five thousand pages thick in his hands, which he placed on the table.

"You might want to read this. I wouldn't consider all that's written here as vital information, but some paragraphs do talk about how to not get yourself eaten"

_Though I feel like you could do just fine even going by simply following your instinct._

Ara stared at the book -brick?-, then at him, then back at the book again before finally setting her gaze on Oberon.

"... really... ?"

"I'm afraid so. Unless you want to stick to the job you have been doing up until yesterday, in which case you could make do with the chapters about mating rituals"

"P-please, don't bring that up..." Ara replied, trying to keep certain kinds of thoughts out of her head, with results that were questionable at best.

"I'll write down your contract, you should read that too before we send a copy to the mistress" he concluded as he left.

Left on her own, Ara opened the manual and quickly scrolled through the pages. There were dozens of illustrations, but...

"These letters are minuscule..." she thought out disheartened.

* * *

The rest of the day had gone by surprisingly normally. Ara ended up spending a couple of hours reading a contract that turned out to be much longer than she had expected it to be, but aside from that everything went by as it always did. She woke up a bit later than usual the next morning, and after having gotten herself dressed she ran an hand over her neck and around her hips, not feeling any metal under her fingers.

_This feels kind of weird..._

Pushing that thought aside, she grabbed Obe and placed him on the bed. She hadn't really thought about it until then, but maybe it'd have been better to leave him at the menagerie rather than taking him to her house? She didn't feel like moving him back and forth, so picking a place to leave him at was the only alternative she could think of. If she was really going to stay at the menagerie five days a week then leaving him at her house would feel a bit like a waste, but doing so also meant Oberon would never find out about her having him. ... assuming he didn't already, something she was far from sure about. Telling herself that she might as well have breakfast before taking a decision, she headed downstairs. As she approached the kitchen, however, she noticed that the aroma of hot brioches was stronger than usual. She walked inside and stopped, blinking a couple of times. Oberon turned around and stared back at her, his blue eyes locked on hers for a few moments.

"This is... more awkward than I'd expected" he commented before going back to making breakfast, his fox ears standing mostly still.

Ara remained still for a couple of seconds before taking a seat.

"So... how do you feel?"

"Pretty normal, all things considered. Though I caught your scent the moment you left your room"

Her cheeks blushed, if only very faintly. Was that why he had made the brioches's aroma more intense? ... actually, how did he even do that?

"S-so, when do you think we... well, you know..."

"I don't know, to be honest. If I had to make a guess comparing where my thoughts are today compared to where they were yesterday, I'd say we can wait more than a week. That's not a guess I would trust though, given how little I currently know of this... condition"

"R-right..."

Ara had asked Eun about that too in her letters, but it was really unlikely she'd get an answer in less than a couple of weeks. Actually, considering what the fox had told them, Ara was pretty sure she knew already what kind of answer she was going to get. She could almost hear Eun's words already. "You are the one who wrote the rules, you cannot expect me to know about them when you yourself forgot what they are. But do inform me when you find out, for I am most intrigued by what you might have come up with"

"It also depends on you, after all" Oberon added as he placed her breakfast on the table, bringing her mind back to her current location.

"Eh?"

"In what state would you rather have me be in for intercourse?" he asked, his ears twitching once as he did so.

Ara stared at him, her cheeks turning redder and redder. Her eyes had partially changed color too, though she couldn't really see that.

"I-ehr-th-tha- I mean... w-what about you?"

"I'd rather not push my preferences on you" he replied as he sat down and started reading.

To buy some time, Ara started eating, her gaze darting back to him every now and then. On one hand, saying that she wanted him to be as clear-minded as possible seemed to be the obvious answer. On the other, while she did have some experience with... let's say regular partners, by that point she was actually more comfortable lying with less... average... males. She couldn't really tell him that though, could she?

... could she?

"M-maybe we should just wait a bit more and see how things go?"

"Yes, that might be for the better"

The rest of the morning went by rather normally. Ara tried to read through at least a bit of the manual Oberon had given her, but making out the words without a magnifying glass was giving her an headache and she eventually gave up. Around lunchtime, coincidentally.

"Say, they're not causing you troubles, right? During your work, I mean" she later asked him as she was trying not to burn whatever the thing in the cooking pan was, her eyes briefly going to his ears.

"I've gotten a couple of odd stares from a few of our guests, but nothing more" he replied as he wondered if the dish she was making had really just blinked or if he was losing it instead.

"That's a relief"

"So, when do you think I will... you know, start working?" she asked, not exactly because she was eager to start but because she needed something to distract herself.

Oberon pondered for a while before answering.

"Even today, if you want"

"And what would I do?"

"I think... pick up feathers. Unless you want to entertain the guest instead of harvesting its plumage, in which case we should either pick a different one or wait for the sun to set"

"Wha- I- I won't do that again!" she said back, though she was probably shouting at herself rather than at him.

A brief silence followed.

"It's the third room on the eight floor, if you want to go there by yourself. The guest should be asleep, and even if it wakes up it's an especially harmless creature as long as you don't give it any reason to feel threatened. If you'd rather not go alone, however, just say so and I'll come with you"

"It's a bird of sort?" she asked, since he did mention feathers.

"An owl, you could say. I need to point out, however, that I should probably be present anyway if you decide to..."

"C-can you stop bringing that up?!" she interrupted him, her face red.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you"

The rest of the meal went by rather quietly, -whatever had been in the pan either died before getting to the table or had never really blinked in the first place- and Ara decided to at least take a look at the dome in question. Going down the elevator by herself felt stranger than she had expected, maybe even vaguely unsettling, but she shrugged that off and walked to the room Oberon had mentioned. The antechamber she stepped in had nothing but empty wardrobes inside. Well, that and a somewhat impressive stock of threads right next to what seemed to be a sort of automated sewing machine.

 _... is this what he used to fix my clothes?_ she wondered as she took a quick look at the display.

Turning her gaze to the door, she found her hands instinctively going to her waist to remove something she wasn't wearing anymore.

_... oh, come on now..._

Sort of scolding herself mentally for that, she opened the door and walked into the dome. Ara found herself in what could be described as a large glade dotted with a few rather massive trees, with several much smaller ones inbetween those. She looked around a bit before going back to the antechamber.

_Ok, calm down, you're not here for that._

She repeated those words in her mind a few times before going back in. She took a couple of deep breaths then looked around. ... where was she supposed to find the feathers, again? Well, they had to be somewhere, so she started walking, headed towards one of the largest trees. Their branches were rather low in number, but the combination of thickness and amount of foliage on them made it really hard to see anything above a certain height. On her way to the first tree and around it she found nothing, so she picked a different one and walked there. It was only around the trunk of the fifth one that she finally found something. A feather, as she had been told. It was relatively short and wide, of a charmingly deep purple with black and blue lines along it. That, and it was around as big as her coat.

"This is... massive..." she commented as she picked it up.

Thankfully, being a feather, it was pretty much weightless despite its size. She looked around and found a bit more then, as she reached the other side of the tree, noticed that there were rungs inserted into the trunk, forming a spiral staircase around it. Placing what she had already found next to the first step, she headed upstairs, making sure to calm herself down every now and then. She didn't find much at first, but as she stepped higher along the tree she started seeing more and more feathers lying all around, resting on the net of branches. Stepping from the rungs to the tree's arms, she started wandering around over them gathering feathers. Some were a bit larger than the ones she had found below, others were a bit bigger, a couple had a slightly different color, but for the most part they were pretty much identical.

She brought back down a couple dozens of them -something that took longer than one might expect as she had to be careful with every step and make sure there was solid footing beneath all the leaves-, then remained still for a couple of seconds before climbing up again, going higher than before. She grabbed a few more feathers as she walked around, but what she was looking for was actually the bird who had lost them. It was kind of weird seeing that many feathers around, so maybe there was more than one? Not long after, she found a branch quite larger than the others, and walked up along it. Like a sort of scenic route, the branch emerged from the canopy of the three, turning to the side and running along its edge. At one point, however, she found the road blocked by a cluster of much smaller branches, probably large enough for her to comfortably lie down inside. Well, had it not been occupied already.

"It's... this?" she wondered as she gently poked at the ball of feathers in front of her.

Her hands sank into the plumage way past the wrist before finding something solid, at which point she stopped. Looking more closely, she could sort of see a part of the... ball growing bigger then smaller then bigger again at a fixed rhythm, and guessed the lungs had to be around there, though she honestly couldn't make out anything else from that purple mass of feathers. She couldn't spot the head, the wings, the legs, nothing.

"This... sure looks fluffy though..."

She remained there a bit -a while- longer than she had initially planned to, then went back down, all the way to the ground. She picked up all the feathers she had collected and brought them to the antechamber, and only then realized that she didn't actually know where she was supposed to leave them. Deciding to simply drop them to the floor in the least messy way she could, she went back to the tree to gather some more. She did that a couple of times, after which a considerable pile of feathers were lying in the antechamber. She turned around to head back inside one last time, but then stopped. She had already picked up all she could find, so there wasn't really a point to going back in. Though she could always stay around and wait for the night.

_No, hold on. I'm not here for that. No..._

She reaffirmed that in her mind again then walked back to the elevator. As she moved up, however, the sentence she had just told to herself took on a different shape.

_...t today, at least..._


	30. New Habits Die Hard

**New Habits Die Hard**

The next day, at breakfast, Ara found Oberon with a tail which she really shoudln't have found as good-looking as she did. For a moment she thought about asking him how that felt, but considering that she knew perfectly well what having a tail -more than one even- was like, she decided not to, if only to not come off as sarcastic. Oberon himself didn't seem to act all that differently, except for the fact that he stood on average two steps farther away than usual. That, and Ara could smell a somewhat alluring scent coming from him. It was faint though, enough for her to barely be able to notice it.

"You know" he said as he raised his gaze from the book he was reading "Your eyes changed color"

"T-they did?" she asked, a bit startled.

Not really because of what he said, but rather because the question came while she was busy trying to subtly take in his scent from across the table. How exactly, that's up to debate. She stopped doing that anyway, for a couple of different reasons.

"How are you feeling?"

"... I really think I should be the one asking that question"

"I'd say... just to be sure, don't touch me directly, unless you want to do that. Or at least warn me beforehand"

"O-ok... what should I do today?" she asked then to change the subject "I picked up all the feathers I could find yesterday"

"There is a guest we should check up on, though I'd strongly advise against you going there alone. Unless you've already read the chapter about it"

"I... I didn't"

_I didn't even say which guest we are talking about though_

"... or we can just play chess"

"Oh, that'd be really nic- wait, aren't I supposed to have actual work hours now?"

"That's more of a formality. I can run the menagerie by myself so, while your help is definitively appreciated, I don't really need you to work yourself to the bone, or much at all actually. At least not right away"

"I... see..." she replied, feeling somewhat unnedeed.

 _There is one kind of job I couldn't perform myself, but bringing that up again would probably be a bad idea_ he thought silently.

Their chess game lasted the whole day. And more actually, as by the time she went to sleep the match was still going, though that was in good part due to the fact that, for a certain reason, they were both having a somewhat harder time than usual concentrating on the game, each move consequently taking them more time, especially for him. Since it'd been a while, Ara took Obe out from his hideout -if it could be called that- and kept him next to her as she slept, waking up in the morning with her arms folded around him. She cuddled with him for a while, her hair partially changing color as she did so, though it went back to its usual black when she eventually got up. When, not long after, she walked to the kitchen, her nose was overwhelmed by a perfume she didn't recognize.

"I-is it that bad?" she asked, nearly coughing.

"I might have overdone it a bit" Oberon replied as his gaze turned to an half-empty vial lying on the table "But your scent is getting... harder to ignore"

As fully aware of what he meant as Ara was, she still couldn't help but take a quick sniff at herself, though she couldn't smell anything. Not through the thick layer of perfume filling the room, at least, perfume which also covered his own scent. Breakfast went by almost the same as usual, the main difference being that Oberon was standing around two more steps further away. She wondered if he'd eventually avoid being in the same room as her if they kept that up long enough.

"What's the plan for today then?"

"I have some documents to sort. As for you, have you read anything yet?"

"I... I could use a magnifier for that, honestly. My eyes hurt after just a single page..."

Well, he couldn't really blame her for that. His eyes had an in-built zooming function, but the same didn't really apply to... anyone that didn't have artificial eyes.

"There should be one lying around somewhere in the storage room" he replied as he placed a key on the kitchen counter "It's the locked door in the octagonal room, you can pick it up yourself"

"Sure"

Not long after, Oberon left. Ara cleaned up the kitchen, grabbed the key and headed to the room beneath Eve's private lodging, finding the place still buried in dozens of pillars of papers. She wondered if those were the documents Oberon had to sort, but he didn't seem to be around so maybe that wasn't the case. She headed downstairs, and then realized that she didn't really remember which door was the right one, with all four of them being identical. Well, the one she was looking for should have been locked, so she randomly picked one and tried to open it. On the other side was the room she had woken up in after that little incident under the rain. Quickly closing the door to avoid having her mind linger on that for too long, she tried another one, which didn't budge. Taking the key from her pocket, she unlocked the door and entered the storage room.

The place was somewhat smaller than she had expected. She could almost touch the ceiling with her fingers if she tried, and the walls weren't too far apart from each other. Shelves filled the place, but they all were only half-full, at most. There was a bit of everything there. As she walked she spotted ropes, bandages, pens, books, some electronic instruments she didn't recognize, a sword, chains, clothes hangers, dresses, playing cards and more. What surprised her the most, however, was the fact that it all seemed to have been thrown there without any real order. She quickly reached the end of the room, only to notice a staircase going down. The lower floor turned out to be pretty much more of the same as the upper one. As for the magnifying glass she was looking for, she had to reach the third level before actually finding one.

The stairs kept going down, but she decided to head back to her room instead. Along the way, however, her gaze fell on a carton box still taped shut, with a thin layer of dust on it. She looked around for something to rip the scotch with and opened the box, only to slam it shut right after.

 _W-why is something like this here... actually, I guess I might have an idea or two..._ she thought, recalling how Eve... treated her right before and in the early days of the fair.

She stared at the box for a short while, then decided to take that back to her room too, together with another thing she had seen on her way down. She grabbed everything and left, locking the door behind her and making a brief stop at the kitchen to drop the key on the table before walking back to her room. There she sat down, took a moment -quite a few, actually- to wonder if she shouldn't actually put the box back where she found it, then decided to just hide it under the bed instead, at least for the time being.

Then she pulled out the manual Oberon had given her and started reading. While she wasn't exactly as interested in what was written there as someone like Rena would have been, she didn't really find the subject to be all that boring either and, also because she didn't have much else to do, she ended up spending the whole day going through the pages, lunch and dinner aside. The chess match wasn't over yet, but since Oberon didn't mention it once through the day she guessed he wanted to continue the game when he could better handle her sitting in front of him. Night came, but unlike usual, Ara had simply lied on her bed without falling asleep, a few words echoing in her mind. She got up, got dressed, grabbed a small lantern which she had found in the storage room then headed to the elevator.

Waiting for the doors to open made her more nervous than she had expected, maybe because she didn't know where Oberon was, but as it turned out he wasn't inside when she had pushed the button. Stepping inside, Ara headed down to the eighth floor, and from there to the third room. In the antechamber she found the sewing machine active and working, though she couldn't tell exactly what it was sewing. Well, the pile of feathers she had assembled seemed to have lost some mass and a couple of rolls of threads were missing, so it's not like she had no idea what was being stitched together. She stared at the door leading to the dome, remaining still in front of it for a while.

_Should I really do this?_

Maybe she should have brought her spear with her? No, that would have probably been a bad idea. The general section of the manual did mention that the guests of the menagerie were oddly good at recognizing weapons, so bringing one inside would have probably meant presenting herself as a threat. That, and Oberon said the owl was especially harmless, so she shouldn't have needed it either way. Probably. Asking herself why she hadn't bothered reading the part of the book which talked about said owl in the first place, she took a step forward. She had a vague feeling that going through with it would have locked her on a... most peculiar path of life, but she told herself that she was just overthinking it. After all, there was no reason why that coulnd't simply be a one-off thing. No need to make it an habit.

Assuming that wasn't what it was already.

At last, Ara entered the dome. She turned the small electric lantern on before closing the door behind her. It was dark. The moon was far from full, and the stars, as pretty as they were, couldn't really be considered a source of light. She raised the plain, albeith somewhat elegant, lantern in front of her and started walking, almost sure about where she was going. She quickly she reached a spot mostly devoid of threes, and from there located the few massive ones that characterized that dome, black spots against the starry sky. If her memory wasn't lying, the one where she had found the nest was the one north-east from her position. Having confirmed where her destination was, she started walking. There weren't a lot of sounds coming from the forest, if any at all, and partially because it was night, that made her footsteeps seem louder than usual.

Just as she began to wonder if she had strayed from the path she had traced in her mind, the shadow of the exceptionally large appeared. When looking at it from up close, its size was enough to cover the sky. She walked around the trunk and found the same ladder, confirming to herself that she had gotten the place right. She climbed upstairs and then along the branches, and while she nearly fell down when a leaf slipped to the side upon her placing her foot on it, she managed to arrive at the nest in a rather short time. The owl, however, was nowhere to be seen. That said, the nest was too large and there wasn't enough space to walk around it so, partially out of curiosity as well, Ara decided to try and climb it instead.

She tried to pull a few branches down a bit to find a solid enough spot, then pulled with a bit more strength to make sure she wouldn't bring down the whole nest with her weight, then finally climbed up, though doing so while having the lantern still in hand proved to be somewhat awkward. When she managed to get to the top, the nest turned out to be bigger than she had expected, measuring at least four meters in length. She wondered about crossing it and seeing how far up the branch reached, but ultimately decided not to. She climbed back down instead and sat down, waiting. A while later -an hour at most if she had to guess- a noise suddenly reached her hears. Recognozing the sound of wings flapping, she turned around as she lifted the lantern, and there to greet her was an owl, standing on the edge of its nest.

It was hard to tell since it was hunched down to stare at her, but by the look of it the bird was at least close to twice Ara's height. The creature tilted its head quickly to one side then to the other, its bright yellow eyes fixed on her.

"Uh... h-hi... ?"

The owl then bent down even more and picked her up by her coat, using its beak, before lowering her into the nest. She was getting a bit nervous. The creature then started walking in circles over the edge of its nest, its gaze always fixed on her. He kept doing that for a while, before eventually jumping down next to her, slowly pushing itself against her.

_It's so soft..._

Without even moving, Ara found herself half immerged in its plumage. The feathers were cold but not chilly, and made her feel like a pillow was embracing her. The owl then flapped its wings a couple of times -she didn't notice it, but it actually had two pairs of wings- and bent to the side. Its head now much lower, he rubbed it against Ara a couple of times, gently, and she found herself scratching its chin -or what she guessed was its chin, at least- as if it was some sort of cat. Which felt kind of wrong, in retrospection, but the bird didn't seem to mind. The creature then brought its head back up and walked around her with quick but tiny steps, its legs hidden from sight by its long plumage. It was a rather funny sight, to her at least. It poking at her with its beak was a bit less funny, but it didn't put much force into it so it wasn't too bad either.

Then, suddenly, the owl turned around and... Ara wasn't sure, but by the sounds it was making and by the way it was moving its head... it wasn't puking, was it? The creature then turned back around, although somewhat awkwardly. Which, as it turned out, was because it had done so by jumping on one leg, the other one raised, turned in a way that didn't look exactly uncomfortable. It was using it as a sort of make-do hand, or at least that seemed to be the case. Ara's gaze fell on its talons, as long and sharp as one would expect them to be for a bird of prey of that size. Her eyes, however, quickly moved from those to something else, something resting on its sole. Assuming it could be called a sole.

Said thing was a sort of... ball, completely covered in short feathers. And while it was surprisingly... dry, there still was some drool on it. Ara stared at it for a few moments, then moved her gaze to the owl's large eyes, wide open and fixed on her. Seeing that she wasn't moving, it pushed its leg against her, just enough to bump against her softly a couple of times.

"... so... what is this again?" she asked noone as she hesitantly grabbed the featherball, which was much warmer than she had expected.

The owl brought its leg back down, the limb disappearing again underneath the plumage, then patted her on the head with its wing. Ara started to wonder if it saw her as a chick or something like that. The owl then rubbed itself against her a few more times before jumping back to the edge of the nest and taking flight, disappearing in the night.

"... this was... not quite what I had in mind..." she commented, somewhat disheartened.

Then the thing between her hands pulsed. Startled, she almost dropped it, but she managed to stop herself from letting go of it. She could feel it moving between her fingers, though she wasn't quite sure how. Then something extended from the ball. Wether that was a tentacle or a more conventional limb, she couldn't really tell.

"... uh... hi... again?"

The feathery thing then suddenly slid over her skin, wrapping around her arms as it moved inside the large sleeve of her coat, quickly reaching her chest. She managed to grasp it as it was crawling in circles around her torso -though the feathers rubbing against her like that made for quite the pleasant feeling- but what little saliva was left on it made it surprisingly slippery and the no-longer-a-ball thing slipped through her fingers. Having made its way to her waist, it quickly ran in circles over it a few times, which forced Ara to hold in a laugh, before managing to slide underneath her shirt. Then, finally, it stopped moving. Perplexed, the girl pulled up her clothing to get a better look at that.

The first thing that came to her mind was a weird, cylindrical, feathery belt of some sort. She poked it a few times with her fingers. There were no responses at first, but then two protuberances extended from it, sliding underneath her skirt and pantyhose, wrapping right at the base of her thighs. It felt oddly nice, in both a good way and a bad one.

"So... how do I take this o-kyahh?!"

She pretty much shrieked when another appendage slid inside her rear, completely unannounced, and started to slowly but steadily move around. Ara moved her hands down to try and take that thing off, whatever exactly it might have been, but then stopped. She limb -if that's what it was- that had slid inside her wasn't really any longer than a finger, nor was it any thicker, and it wasn't squirming around that much either. It felt... a bit weird, but also rather nice overall. Considering why she had gone there in the first place, that wasn't quite what she had expected, but it was better than nothing at the very least.

Rationalizing what she was thinking, her cheeks turned red a bit. Not enough to make her change her mind though.

So she sat down, although a bit hesitantly maybe. Then she got right back up and looked for a more comfortable spot to sit on. When she eventually found it she took a couple of deep breaths. Doing that out in the open was... embarassing to say the least, but then again that wasn't really outside, it was just a fancy looking room. A really fancy room, she told herself. Which was true, after all. So it should have been fine.

She brought her hand down, sliding it underneath her pantyhose and sneaking it into her underwear, over her entrance, which was... reasonably wet. She began to slowly massage herself, gently rubbing her privates, taking her time. She slid an hand underneath her shirt and closed her fingers around her breast, her index slowly moving inside her in the meanwhile. She began to rub her nipple a bit as she searched around for the right spot, finding it fairly quickly. Her face grew redder, but the combination of being in full control -for once- and going slowly allowed her to keep her breaths pretty regular and composed. The protuberance in her rear kept moving around, the feeling getting more pleasant as time went on. Eventually she pushed more fingers inside herself as she rubbed her inner walls, her thumb occasionally poking gently at her clit while her other hand continued to fondle her chest. The pleasure from her own hands combined with the one from her other orifice, the two building up on each other, with a somewhat stingy prickly feeling eventually spreading though her rear, until Ara brought her teeth down on her lips, spilling a single drop of blood, her back arching slightly, her fingers still moving -if ever so slightly- to make her climax last just a bit longer, the feeling echoing within her for a few seconds.

Her tender orgasm began to abate, but she kept touching herself for a bit more, causing the gentle pleasure to linger for a bit more in her body, aided by the stimulation in her rear.

 _That was... refreshing..._ she thought, as it really had been a while since she last masturbated in a so relaxed manner.

Then she looked at the hand she had just pulled out from her panties.

"... maybe I should have brought something to wipe myself with..."

It's not like it was drenching, but she was definitively going to leave anything she touched damp, at least. Then she got up and stared at the thing around her waist again.

"Alright, this doesn't feel bad" she said, her face still red "But how do I take it off... ?"

 _... I guess I've... grown accustomed to this sort of things by now. ... ?_ she wondered as she found herself quite enjoying the soft stings she was feeling in her rear every now and then. Though they were also worrying her a bit.

Telling herself again that she really should have red at least the chapter about that owl before walking inside on her own, she ran her hands over the... creature? She couldn't really find anything resembling... well, anything on it. No eyes, no mouth, no ears, nothing. Just a mass of flesh covered in feathers, with a few tentacular limbs growing on it. She thought about trying to pull it off by force, but that didn't seem like that great of an idea. Granted, she could just ask Oberon, but she kind of didn't really want him to find out she was doing that. Not so soon after no longer having to, at least. And if she managed to get that thing off quickly enough, her hair -which had for the most part changed color already- should have turned back to normal quickly enough. Or maybe she could just say they were due to Oberon's own changes just like her eye color.

Regardless, Ara decided to head back to her room and see if there was anything concerning that particular situation written in the manual. Climbing back up the nest was a bit... funny with that thing still moving around in her rear, though not really uncomfortable. She started walking, lantern in hand, getting off the tree, and as she traveled through the glade she occasionally casted a quick glance at the sky. Somewhere along the way, however, she stopped, the constant, mild -if not downright gentle- stimulation kind of getting her in the mood again.

 _... I-I can do that later_ she told herself as she started walking again, her mind briefly going back to the box she had hidden under her bed.

Just as she reached the door, however, a sound she had already heard that night interrupted her. She turned around to see the owl standing behind her, its large eyes locked on her.

"... ehm... h-hello there?"

_It's... not going to drag me back to its nest, is it?_

The bird approached her with tiny steps, waddling. Had it been smaller, the sight would have been adorable. Given its size, however, Ara merely found it cute. The animal then walked around her, so she turned around to keep facing it. The owl stopped as she did so, then tried going the other way, with the girl still turning around to face him. The scene repeated itself for a few times, before the owl eventually opened its wings and placed them next to her shoulders. He then removed them and took a few steps clockwise, slowly. Just as Ara was about to turn around again, the bird moved right back in front of her and placed his wings on her shoudlers again, letting out a low, somewhat annoyed -or at least that's how it sounded to her- hoot. After that he started walking around her again in tiny steps, and this time she remained still, though she did follow him with her gaze.

The creature did two complete laps around her before stopping to her side. It bent its head down and poked its beak against her -or rather, against the thing it had given her earlier- softly a couple of times, then... straightened her posture -which by all accounts was already pretty much perfect- with its wings. Finally, it patted her on the head with an oddly happy-sounding hoot before stepping away and taking flight once more.

"... w... what was that about?"

The silent night, however, had no answer for her. So she simply turned around and left the dome. Before she could leave the antechamber, however, something happened. The protuberance inside her rear pulsed. Just once at first, but then it started doing so more often. An odd feeling began to spread through her, a sort of somehow faintly ticklish warmness. She lost her balance, even if for only a moment, then the whole thing around her flesh started to tremble. Lastly, the part that was inside of her began to... swell.

"H-hold on a moment!"

Without bothering to move her coat out of the way, she tried to grab the lump of flesh to pull it out, but as soon as her hands grasped it with enough strength, something else wrapped around her wrists, holding them firmly in place behind her back.

"You're kidd- ah!"

She nearly fell to her knees as the protuberance in her had a sudden burst in size. On the bright side, that was surprisingly painless, for one reason or another. That said, it still sent a jolt up her spine. After having recovered from that, she tried to move her arms, but her hands were locked behind her back, and while she could guess what had happened, the coat had gotten caught into it, ending up covering her wrists for the most part. Well, it was unlikely she could get a glimpe anyway since she could only turn her head around so much without snapping her own neck.

"A-alright, there's gonna be something about this in that book" she told herself, though even she didn't find her voice convincing.

She walked to the door, although turning the knob turned out to be rather awkward with her wrists bound like that, and walked out. Just a few steps later, however, Ara nearly shrieked in surprise as she felt something forcing her rear open, a thing large enough to be a bit painfull stretching her out as it slowly entered her from within the protuberance, though on the whole it still felt uncomfortably pleasant, jolts of delight running through her nerves. Barely managing to not fall on her face from the sudden stimulation, she regained her footing, and noticed that something was wrong. Well, something other than the more obvious thing, at least. She was sweating, even though it was far from hot in there, and there was an itch spreading through her, or rather inside of her. She walked to the elevator, but with every step the object that was trying to enter her seemed to get pushed in a bit further, sending tiny waves of pleasure accompanied by a fairly small bit of pain and a vague sense of uncomfortableness through her.

She managed to push the button then got inside the lift when its door finally opened -that took a while- but the key to head back to the ground floor was relatively high up, and hitting it was harder than she had expected. The elevator's door then closed, which would have been nice, if not for the fact that she hadn't pushed anything yet. Realizing what was happening, Ara turned pale. Time went by, one minute after the other, during which she tried to come up with something, anything, but nothing really came to her mind. To make things worse, the thing in her rear was still being pushed in, and by that point it had completely entered her, though she still didn't know what said thing actually was.

Then, the elevator finally stopped and the door slid open. And Oberon was there, a pile of papers in his hands. He had guessed that Ara had used the elevator at some point during the night, otherwise he wouldn't have had to wait for it to come back down, but for her to be inside just when he was about to head back up was quite the timing. To make things worse, the elevator shaft was, for one reason or another, hermetic. Had that not been the case, he would have caught her scent beforehand. But with things being as they were, her smell assailed his nostrils suddently, without a warning. It was quite a wonder that he managed to not drop the documents he was holding.

"T-this is... well... " Ara tried commented, her face red.

Upon hearing those words, Oberon's ears twitched. She noticed that his scent was oddly strong, which was... a bad sign actually. She felt her ears standing on edge as the smell sank into her nose. She hadn't even realized her fox ears had come out, in all truth, unless they had just grown in response to his aroma. That would explain why she hadn't noticed them up until then.

"We should... take care of that first" he replied, his gaze noticing a few feathers coming out from underneat her clothes, his voice trembling just a bit.

"Is this... bad?" she asked as she turned around a bit, just enough to show him her bound wrists.

The silence that followed worried her-

"... I think it'd be better if you wait for me here. I'll be back soon with something" he eventually replied.

_That... somehow worries me even more_

"S-sure"

Ara walked out of the elevator while he stepped inside, the two of them leaving as much space as they could between each other, then the door closed, leaving her by herself again. The main reason she didn't drop to her knees out of dejection was that she believed doing so with that thing still inside her rear would have been... intense. She looked around a bit, but the only thing inside there was a table, and she wasn't too keen on the idea of sitting down, so she simply leaned against the wall. There were four doors there actually, but for one reason or another she really didn't want to cross any of them at the moment. On the bright side, the feathery lump of flesh seemed to have stopped doing whatever it had been up to until a few minutes earlier.

Quite a while went by, during which Ara managed to almost calm down, but Oberon did eventually come back. Though her gaze took longer than one might expect before finally falling on the syringe in his hand. She stared at it for a few moments, then back at him.

"It's a muscle relaxant"

"Oh, I see. I think"

He remained still for a bit longer than he had need to before stepping forward. Then he asked Ara to turn around.

"It might tighten a bit around you now" he warned.

She sighed, but nothing more. As she did so he placed the tip of the needle on the feathery mass, much closer to her rear than she would have been comfortable with had she been able to actually see it, but even then she would have felt like complaining about that would have been somewhat petty. Oberon then pushed it inside, the creature of sort closing itself around Ara with more strength in response. Not a whole lot of strength, but still some.

"This acts rather quickly, you should start to feel the effects in a minute or two"

"W-wait, why should I? I'm not the one who took the shot" she asked, her voice a mixture of confusion and concern.

"This appendage takes some nutrients and other substances from your body while injecting you with some of its own. They're mostly harmless, but that means most of the relaxant will end up in your body rather than staying inside here"

"... great..."

"Now, just a moment" he added before disappearing behind one of the doors.

"... sure"

And, just as he had said, she felt her muscles losing strength. Not to the point she couldn't stand, but her knees did seem to want to give out. At most a minute had gone by when Oberon came back, carrying a chair.

"It'd be better if you sit down for this"

Which gave her a really bad feeling, but she decided to go along with it. Or at least she tried.

"The other way around"

"You mean... like this?" she asked as she took the seat, but facing the backrest rather than lying against it.

"A bit more this way" Oberon replied as he grabbed her -somewhat hesitantly?- and pulled her a bit closer to the edge, leaving her rear kind of off the seat.

"No, wait wait wait, I think I need an explanation"

_... you didn't read the relevant chapter before walking in alone for this?_

Keeping that thought to himself, Oberon answered.

"I have to pull out the protuberance that slided inside of you"

"You have to... what?" she asked, somewhat upset.

Not really because the act didn't make sense to her -she tried to do the same after all- but rather because having someone else do it was... embarassing, to say the least.

"How long has it been since it entered you?"

"I... I think a couple of hours, at most..." she replied, thankfull that he couldn't see how red her cheeks were from where he was.

"Then we might still be in time"

"In time? In time for wh -!"

She stopped midway as she felt him pull down her pantyhose, just enough to leave her panties exposed, then moved those to the side as well.

"C-can't you just get my hands free? I-I think I could do it myself then... actually, what was the relaxant even for?"

"It should come off by itself in two, maybe three hours. As for the relaxant, that was for you, to make the removal easier"

"Then... why didn't you just inject it directly into me?"

Before answering, Oberon stared briefly at his fingers.

"Giving the shot to the carrier diluited the relaxant a bit. I wasn't too sure about sending it diretcly into your veins since it wasn't made for human"

Which was true, but he did leave out a couple of things from his explanation, one being that he believed Ara's body had been altered enough by Eun's essence to be able to take something like that without problems. Then again, he wasn't absolutely sure about it and, as they say, being safe is better than being sorry.

"I... I see..."

"I'll start now"

He grabbed the protuberance and pulled, albeith with more strength than he had intended to use. And while Ara knew that was about to happen, she hadn't expected the feeling that came with it. Something between a shriek and a moan escaping her lips as she felt several thin ligaments of sorts being pulled away from her flesh, scraping against her insides as they were dragged out. It lasted just a few moments, but the feeling was so intense that it left her gasping, partially because she hadn't prepared herself in the slightest, the sudden burst of pleasure causing her ears to twitch.

That said, the reason why it didn't last long was that it wasn't actually over yet. Oberon started pulling again, this time with a bit more care, and the scraping started anew. In particular, there was an especially wide portion of the protuberance that pushed her inner walls apart as it was slowly dragged out, sending jolts up her spine, presumably the part that contained whatever had entered her after she had left the dome. Ara closed her fists as pleasure began to spread through her again, though there was something in the scent she was smelling from Oberon that was making her somewhat light-headed, and that didn't quite help her dealing with the situation. Maybe. Something then reached her ears, a weird sound that seemed to come from within her, and immediatly after the protuberance that was inside her got pulled out in a single, swift motion, scratching her insides as it did so. The sudden stimulus forced her voice out of her lungs, a loud moan with a small shade of cry mixed in escaping her lips.

To make things worse, or better, a sharp pain accompanied the wave of pleasure, just enough to send her over the edge, though her muscles failed to tense up due to the relaxant. Her legs trembled a bit instead, her tail waving left and right a couple of times before Oberon grabbed it with his free hand to stop it from hitting his face. His touch was warm, though by that point that didn't surprise her. There was something odd though. She was still feeling something relatively large inside her rear, something foreign, but something that was... isolated, so to say.

"This is... quite unlucky. It seems that we were a few minutes late"

"S... so what does that... mean?" she asked while regulating her breath, recovering from her orgasm.

"The egg detatched from the carrier, which means pulling out this limb didn't remove it" Oberon commented as he moved Ara's newly-grown tail out of his face, with a bit of reluctance maybe.

Her scent was starting to overwhelm him, but the current situation still required a certain degree of self control. As for Ara herself, it took a while -a short one, but still a while- before she fully processed those words.

"... a... an... egg... ? ... again?!"

"This time it's in a different orifice, to be acc-"

"Please don't point that out!"

"... sorry"

"So, wait, the... right, can you... w-well, can't you pull it out? L-like last time?" she asked, and while she wanted to bury her face in a pillow, all she had was the fact that Oberon could only see her back rather than her completely red face at the moment.

Once again, he looked at his hands for a bit before answering.

"I'm afraid I have to advise against that"

"Why?"

"My hands aren't steady enough to do that at the moment" he replied.

Truth be told, he had broken the needle while pulling it out because of that, but he decided not to inform her about that detail. Ara, on her part, didn't ask why his hands were trembling, since she already knew the answer.

"So... does this mean..."

"You'll have to push it out yourself"

Ara banged her head against the backrest. He was about to ask her if she was alright, but managed to stop himself from doing that.

"The carrier should have completely cleaned your intestine before lying the egg, don't worry about that"

"That... that's... good, I guess, but I'm not sure I really wanted to hear it..."

Oberon was a bit conflicted. On one hand, he should have left, as he wasn't sure for how much longer he could keep himself in check. On the other, if something went wrong and the egg broke inside of Ara, he would have had to intervene, preferably as soon as possible. So he pulled her panties down, not by much, just enough to leave her rear completely bare. On the bright side, Ara's cheeks couldn't turn any redder than they already were.

"I'll... be in that corner there, then"

"O... ok..."

_Just kill me already..._

Ara spent the next few minutes trying to mentally prepare herself, though one could argue that her attempts ultimately failed. With a storm of conflicting feelings raging around in her mind, she started to push it out. The first thing she noticed was that the egg's shell felt somewhat... rough. No, it was a bit different. The thought that she might accidentally break it was kind of unnerving, though the fact that feeling it slowly slide down, scratching her insides as it did so, was rather pleasant made it somewhat easier to relax. It also made it way more embarassing, for one reason or another. As she kept slowly pushing it out, pleasure slowly building up like a rising tide, she realized that the egg was leaving her flesh... itchy. Trying not to think about that, she focused on what she was doing, feeling the foreign object grow closer and closer to the exit, its size stretching her as it approaced its destination.

It hadn't been long since she had started, quite the opposite actually, but to her those few minutes felt like hours. And while he was remaining silent and out of her field of vision, her nose kept reminding her that Oberon was there, which made her more restless. She took a brief pause, in part to regulate her breath and in -much greater- part because she was close to the edge and she wasn't sure how comfortable she was about having an orgasm from that. Granted, that wasn't the first time she had an egg placed inside of her, but the other time it was at least in the front rather than the rear.

Driving those memories away, for the time being at least, she started pushing again. There was a bit of pain running through her as the egg kept moving, leaving an itch behind it that was getting harder and harder to ignore, and as the egg stretched out the exit the pleasure increased, turning from a slowly surging tide to a wave. Right before it could reach her and take her over the edge, however, the egg fell off, finally outside her body. Ara gasped for air, the task having been both quicker and more ardous than she had expected. She could still feel herself gaping. Her tails -at one point the second one had came out- waved around softly. She kept herself from moving, though getting that close to an orgasm only to stop wasn't exactly the best feeling she could think of, frustration demanding for further stimulation. Then something hit her ears. Or rather, she realized that nothing did. Her tails then struck something as they were moving left and right.

Her breathing still ragged, she turned around and saw Oberon kneeled down, and she guessed he had catched the egg before it hit the ground. He walked back to the elevator surprisingly quickly as soon as he realized her gaze was on him.

"I'll... leave your lunch in the oven tomorrow morning. Once the carrier lets go of you, you can just... drop in in front of the elevator. I'll take care of it" he said as he pushed the elevator's button.

"O-Oberon" she stopped him "T-tomorrow, after.. w-would you mind... coming to my room after lunch? ... working in that state must be hard" she added, though she immediatly regretted it.

"It's getting... troublesome, yes"

Then he disappeared inside the elevator, leaving her alone. As his scent faded from the room, Ara regained at least a bit of composure. She regulated her breath a bit, then managed to reach her panties and pull them up, at least a bit. She tried to do the same with her pantyhose, but sort of gave up when the fabric seemed to be about to rip. Adjusting her clothes with her wrists bound like that was quite hard after all. She remained there, sitting on the chair, for a bit longer, before eventually getting up and heading back to her room, resisting the urge to touch herself. There she threw herself on the bed. She wondered for a while about calling Obe out to do... stuff with him, but eventually decided not to, also because exhaustion was starting to get to her. The night was almost over after all, and she hadn't gotten any sleep at all.

_... I guess he talked about lunch because that's when I'll be waking up..._

Ara found herself not really minding that. Or rather, the reason for that.


	31. On a Bed, for Once

**On a Bed, for Once**

Just as she had expected, Ara woke up exceptionally late that day. Her left shoulder was a bit sore since she had gone to sleep with her wrists still bound, which combined with her rolling around probably ended up making her lie in somewhat uncomfortable positions for a few hours. On the bright side, when she eventually opened her eyes her hands were free and the thing restraining them had fallen off. She found it lying on the floor to the side of the bed, completely motionless.

"It's... dead?" she wondered as she poked it a bit, getting no response.

Well, she could think about that later. She got up, fixed her clothes as she'd gone to sleep without taking them off -she kind of had to- and they got a bit messed up over the night, then headed downstairs, dropping the lifeless -?- lump of feathered flesh in front of the elevator before entering the kitchen. As he had told her, Oberon had left lunch in the oven. She checked what was inside before turning it on, waited a bit for it heat up then started eating. Though, despite her stomach being pretty much completely empty, she wasn't feeling too hungry. Mostly because she was rather anxious. Should she get rid of the box? She discarded that idea surprisingly quickly as the pages of a certain book flashed in her mind for a few moments, her cheeks turning a bit red as her memories lingered on the images. She was... maybe not outright interested, but at least a bit curious.

By the time she finished eating it was already afternoon, or at least that's the impression she had by looking out of the window. She cleaned up, headed to her room, grabbed a spare set of clothes then walked to the bathroom to have a shower. Drying her two tails completely would have taken a bit too long, but she tried to at least make sure they weren't dripping all over before getting dressed again. Then she walked to her bed and sat down. Then got back up and made sure Obe was well hidden in her wardrobe before sitting again.

_This is more nerve wracking than I had expected..._

Was it because they had agreed to it beforehand, maybe? Thinking about it, while they had already slept together by that point, all of their previous intercourses had been rather... abrupt, so to say. Actually, how long had it been since she last had a normal intercourse? Well, she wasn't really expecting that one to be entirely normal either, but compared to what had happened underground during her permanence there, it would have been much less weird at the start, at the very least. She found herself scratching her thighs agitatedly, so she got up and started walking around in circles, her two tails waving nervously behind her with every step, until an intense scent hit her nose. She stopped in her tracks, and a few seconds later Oberon knocked at her door.

"Ara?"

"C-come in"

He stepped inside, closing the door behind himself.

"How... do you feel?"

"I'd say... calm. Only compared to yesterday though" he quickly added.

_Is that because we planned this beforehand? Assuming you can call what happened "planning"._

It's not like the urges were gone, but knowing that he was about to touch her anyway made them... not so insistent?

"So... let's sit down, shall we?"

"I guess, yes"

A short, intense silence followed.

"... how would you like it?" he asked, his face and voice both surprisingly relaxed, though his tails were telling a somewhat different story.

She stared at them for a few moments before answering. She was used to having them herself, but seeing others with tails was still rather weird.

"W-well... what about you?" she asked back, her ears twitching.

"Considering everything you've been through recently, I'd guess you would rather have a more normal intercourse this time"

"T-that's not... quite what I meant..."

Right. It's not like he had gotten her question wrong, he just wasn't sure he should really answer, for one reason or another. He found that quite odd himself, if only because Ara had already had rather extreme experiences which made most other things pale in comparison.

"There would be one thing, I guess" he replied after a brief pause "But I'd still like to hear your answer first"

Ara pointed her face to the floor as she fumbled around with her fingers, her tails waving left and right, brushing against his every time they moved to the left.

"T-there is... actually, there was... no, I mean... t-that time you asked me to g-get you a book from your r-room, well... I'd like to... t-try something like t-that, maybe? ... or something a bit simpler, actually..."

Had she had her gaze on him, she'd have noticed his ears standing straight up as she spoke those words. Thinking about it... did she ask him that in an attempt to not propose it herself? She had seen his little library after all, and more specifically that tome.

 _I feel like I've made a mistake before even starting_ he thought.

"There should be something we can use for that in the storage room" he replied as he stood up, but Ara grabbed his arm to stop him.

"A-actually, it's... r-right here" she said as she pointed to the bed with her other hand.

He kept himself from saying anything, simply looking underneath the bed instead and pulling the box out. He opened it and looked at its content, then moved his gaze to Ara, their eyes meeting. She was somewhat curious about why exatly they had a box full of cuffs, ropes, tape and other things of that sort there, but that question could wait.

"Are you sure about this? I... don't think I'll be able to stop myself once we start, even if you tell me to" he warned, still quite amazed at the fact that he hadn't simply jumped on her yet.

What he said was true, but mostly because Eun had purposefully kept a few informations from them, as she found the idea of telling them only at a later date more fun. Probably. Truth was, past a certain point in his transformation Oberon would have simply obeyed Ara's orders were she to speak with a stern enough tone. But she wasn't one to normally speak in such manners, so they were highly unlikely to find out about that on their own. Far away, the celestial fox was probably chuckling.

"I don't think this can get anywhere near as bad as other things I've had to deal with ever since coming here, honestly"

"That's... true"

He brought his gaze back to the box. Something simple, she said, which was quite a good idea, after all. He searched around for a bit, then grabbed something and sat back on the bed, next to her.

"So... turn around" he said.

Ara took a deep breath before facing the other way, presenting her back to him. He took off her coat, placing it on the bed frame, moved her hair out of the way then she felt cold leather closing on her skin, between her elbow and shoulder. He closed the cuff around her arm the same way he would close the buckle of a belt, then did the same on her other arm, fixing her behind her back. Taking a bit too long to do that, maybe, the feeling of her skin on the other side of his gloves distracting him. The chain connecting the two cuffs, a bit thicker than her thumbs, clinked a bit. Then he brought her hands up and closed another cuff around her wrist before running the chain up, making it loop around the other one and bringing it back down to her other wrist, preventing her from lowering her hands. Pretty much like a box tie would. Ara squirmed around a bit, maybe just to see if the leather was too tight, maybe for a different reason, then turned back around. Oberon took off his gloves, revealing a bit of fur on the tip of his fingers, then their eyes met. They stared at each other for a while, a considerably short one, then he placed his bare hand on her equally bare shoulder.

The direct skin contact set him off, albeith in a different way compared to the other time. Rather than instinct taking over him, what happened was closer to his mind blocking out all the thoughts that weren't about the current situation and what they had agreed to do.

Suddenly, almost violently, he pulled her in, closing his arms around her as he ran his face on her exposed skin, deeply inhaling her sweet scent, tasting her skin with his tongue, his hands moving aimlessly around her back, her nape, the base of her tails. Aside from a small exclamation when he held her without warning, Ara remained silent, taking in his aroma instead, as -while to a much lower degree- it had on her the same effect hers had on him. His oddly warm fingers kept moving over her body, eventually pulling down her shirt, his usual composure gone, though he hadn't gotten as feral as the previous time either. He then pushed her down on the bed, getting on top of her as he moved her bra out of the way, baring her chest.

Still savoring her neck with his tongue, occasionally closing his mouth on her skin to suck on her, he cupped his hands around her breasts. Rather than due to the stimulation itself, which was by all means pleasant but also still rather mild, Ara found her breaths growing ragged because of her own increasing excitement. She tried to move her arms, if only out of habit, her muscles pulling against the oddly sturdy leather and metal, as she pushed her chest up ever so sligthly, to meet his touch. He traced his mouth along her neck, his hot breath leaving a warm trail over her skin as he bit down near her shoulder. There wasn't much force in his jaw as he did so, but the gesture still sent shivers down her spine.

He opened his mouth only to move down a bit before biting down softly on her again, repeating the process until he reached her breasts, over which she felt his teeth -sharper than they normally were- sinking a bit into her flesh, a sharp but weak pain mixing in with the warmness his fingers around her naked chest were building up within her. At last, his mouth closed over her nipple and he started to suck on it, running his tongue around and over it as he moved his hand down, his palm never departing from her body, his fingers pulling her skirt up before firmly grasping her rear, pulling her even closer.

His other hand then let go of her round breast before moving up, grazing her lips as it reached for the back of her head, his fingers sinking in her white hair as their tips began to scratch her fox ears. Ara felt a soft, tingling, somehow sensual excitement from that gesture, as unexpected as it was pleasant. Ara's arms struggled against the cuffs again when she felt Oberon pushing his leg between hers, the soft stimulation coming from the slight pressure frustrating her, yet she refrained from saying anything, only ragged breaths leaving her throat. Maybe because she couldn't use her hands, she closed her tails around him, his scent filling her nostrils.

For how long they remained like that, Oberon fondling, biting and licking her breasts while caressing her rear and scratching her ears, she couldn't tell. At one point she had started sweating, and he started collecting the drops with his tongue. The pleasure kept building up, slowly, ever so slowly she wasn't sure she'd ever get over the edge at that rate. For a brief moment she wondered why he was so focused on her chest, but the question quickly faded from her mind as words parted from the tip of her tongue.

"D-don't just keep... teasing me" she said, her face flustered, as she moved her tails away, just enough to leave him some room for moving around.

Wether Oberon actually heard her or she just happened to have a great timing, she couldn't really be sure as he said nothing, the only sounds coming from him being those of his heavy breaths, but he did change the way in which he was touching her. Or rather, he moved back, getting on his knees in front of the bed as he pulled her hips over its edge. He placed his arms over her legs, partially holding them in place as he pushed his nose against her pantyhose, which by that point had gotten moist too, the slight pressure sending an ever so slight shiver through her muscles. Then he pulled her clothes down, baring her dripping entrance, fully savoring her scent as he took a long, deep breath.

His fingers dug into her rear, his nails nearly spilling a few drops of blood from her buttocks as he started to run his tongue over her privates, slowly, taking his time savoring her juices, sending a slow but steady stream of shivers up her spine, her back arching a bit every time he bumbed against her clit, causing her to let out a weak but unrestrained moan, pleasure building up between her legs, until her body started to tremble as her climax grew closer and closer, the feeling of his almost-claws in her flesh already providing her the trigger she'd have soon needed. Then, just as she was about to reach an orgasm, Oberon moved an hand to slide two fingers inside of her, scratching an especially sensitive spot within her as he closed his mouth on her clit, sucking and licking it in alternance.

The sudden burst in stimulation caused her voice to run wild, filling the room as her muscles tensed up, her back arching as an hot wave of pleasure spreaded from her nether region to the rest of her body, the fur of her tails standing up as the slight pain coming from his nails mixed together with everything else to send her over the edge, her mind focusing completely on the feeling, all other thoughts disappearing for more than a few moments as ecstasy filled her nerves. That said, Oberon didn't stop. On the contrary, he seemed to get even rougher on her, though maybe that was simply a feeling caused by her currently hightened sensitivity. Her breathing nearly came to an alt as the high she was in didn't fade, his touch keeping her over the edge instead, the stimulation growing more intense with every passing moment, the pleasure echoing in her very bones as it kept increasing. Soon, Ara felt herself becoming so sensitive that the very touch of his skin and tongue on her privates started to become painful, if only faintly. Then, before the feeling became truly unpleasant, he stopped, putting a few inches between his face and her entrance, his hot breaths still hitting her.

The pleasure started to fade as her limbs trembled, her chest quickly moving up and down as her lungs filled with air again, sweat covering her skin. She raised her head a bit and saw Oberon, his face flushed, his gaze somewhere on the floor apparently. He moved the two fingers he had inserted in her right below his mouth and slowly licked her juices off his hand, the sight making her ears twitch. A minute or so went by, after which he stood up. She saw something in his hand, but he grabbed her shoulders and made her roll around -a bit rudely maybe- before she could recognize the object. He moved her hair away, leaving her back mostly exposed, and slowly tapped his fingers up along her spine, then over her arms. From there he moved his touch to her chest, sliding his hand between her breasts and the bedsheets. He leaned down, resting some of his weight on her, feeling her arms struggle weakly against both the restraints and his body, her hands open and grasping his shirt. Then she felt something poking against her rear.

"Ah!"

A faint cry escaped her lips as a cold, somewhat slippery object no thicker than her own pinkie entered her rear, pushing her open. It felt a bit uncomfortable, but somewhat nice too. Still, she tried to push herself back up, although not in an attempt to stop him, and in response Oberon bit down on her ear. His teeth were nowhere near as sharp nor as long as they were the last time he had done that -he still had a mostly normal face rather than a snout, too-, but the gesture still caused a reaction in Ara. She couldn't quite describe it to herself, but it was an odd mixture of safeness, care, assurance and, actually, of something not quite as comforting, not in the traditional sense at least, but that she still found pleasant. Her muscles apparently relaxing on their own as his breath hit her ear directly, she simply lied down, focusing on his hand firmly grasping her breast and on his fingers playing with her nipple, as the tiny object in her rear was pushed further in, immediatly followed by another, larger one.

When the third one -or rather, the third segment- entered her rear, Oberon stopped pushing, his free hand moving from her chest to her privates, his fingers caressing her drenching entrance as he softly moved the anal beads around in her other orifice to ease the entrance of the next ones, a sense of fullness not unknown to her by that point but still different from the one she was more used to filling her as more cold spheres were pushed inside. Well, that wasn't exactly her first time doing anal so the experience wasn't entirely new to her, but it also wasn't something she'd done many time either. Eventually, all the beads entered her, the last one being considerably larger than the first one, and Oberon backed off a bit. When his teeth left her ear, Ara felt her muscles tensing up for a brief moment before relaxing again, though not as much as before, then almost instinctively tried to reach between her legs with her hands, her body begging her for more stimulation as the soft fondling had kept her arousal high while providing a pleasant feeling that couldn't however get her to her climax.

For a brief moment she wondered if the main reason Oberon seemed to be so controlled compared to the previous time was that they hadn't broken a bottle of perfume filled with her scent this time around. The thought, however, quickly slipped away as Ara found herself slowly moving her hips left and right, her tails lowered and to the side to cover as little as possible in a way quite unlike her normal behaviour, something that she herself noticed.

When his hands grasped her waist, she felt quite a bit of fur against her skin. With a single motion he pushed himself all the way inside of her, forcing air out of her lungs. Something felt a bit... off, maybe, but without giving her time to breath in, Oberon started thrusting back and fort, the wet sound of their flesh hitting against each other filling the room as waves upon waves of pleasure began to fill her mind, preventing her from thinking about what exactly had felt off and why, her breaths growing more and more ragged as her tails waved wildly to her sides, occasionally bumping against his own. He then grabbed her breasts and pulled her up, making her stand on her knees the same way he was, on the floor right next to the bed. The sudden change in position caused his thrusts to hit a different spot inside of her, jolts running through her bones every time she moved her own hips in rythim with his, one of his hands fondling her chest almost violently while the other ran all over her body, his mouth closing down on her neck, his teeth threatening to tear her skin as he licked the sweat off her, her taste filling his mouth the same way her scent had already filled his nose and her moans were filling his ears.

All the while, the beads in her rear were pushing her walls further against his member, enhancing the feeling while also being themselves pushed around with every thrust, reaching parts of her that would have otherwise been left unstimulated. With his heavy breaths echoing in her ears just as much as the sound of their hips meeting and parting over and over again, Ara felt herself melt in a sea of pleasure, with jolts of pain coming from his teeth and nails occasionally, intense just enough to reassure her that her trigger was already there, waiting for her to reach her climax. Which didn't take long at all, her body tensing up as her breaths stopped momentarily, the built-up pleasure crashing against her whole body like a wave, her ears standing straight up as the sharp but slight pain accompanied her into ecstasy, her thoughts focused completely on her own body and on the overwhelming feelings taking over it.

Then the pleasure began to abate and, in a brief moment of clarity, she realized that while she had felt his member throbbing and pulsating, she hadn't felt his seed releasing inside of her, though there had been a somewhat warm feeling. Which was both good and bad, she managed to think.

_Did he... put on a condom?_

With little to no warning at all, Oberon turned around while still holding her, placing himself between her and the bed as he fell -maybe intentionally, maybe not- on the sheets, bringing her down with him. The whole thing caused the beads in her rear to get pushed around a bit which, combined with his member still being inside of her, kept her arousal high, a couple of shivers running up her spine. With the change of position causing him to hit yet another different spot, he started moving again, without waiting for her to fully recover from the previous orgasm, her breaths still broken and irregular. His tails closed around them while hers were waving as wildy as they could, his legs crossed with hers and holding them apart. One of his hands then moved from her chest to her entrance, his fingers playing almost violently with her clith while his other hand moved behind her lower back, aggressively rubbing both the base of her tails and the skin around it, causing her fur to stand on end.

Had it not been for the completely overwhelming amount of pleasure crashing through her body, the ecstasy making it hard to breath, let alone think straight, Ara would have probably noticed that Oberon had grown a bit larger as more and more fur covered his skin. She might also have wondered of what exactly the cuffs on her arms were made of, as by that point her own transformation had progressed enough for her to be able to break free of them had that been normal leather.

But that wasn't the case, and Ara's mind was filled with nothing but pleasure. Since he was no longer holding her chest, she tried to get up, her arms violently struggling against the oddly sturdy restraints bounding them, but his hands were firmly grasping her, preventing her from getting away from the excessively strong stimulation. Maybe exactly because she knew she wasn't getting away, she tried as hard as she could to break free, but all she got from that was to further stimulate herself, her inner walls clamping down even harder, enhancing every thrust and causing the beads to wiggle around in her rear.

Her voice completely filling his ears, which twitched at her every moan, Ara felt herself clamp down, her back arching as her muscles tensed up, pleasure once again filling her nerves as her lungs briefly stopped taking in air, his nails digging into her back more than enough to give her the trigger she needed to reach another climax. Oberon, however, didn't stop, continuing to relentlessly stimulate her instead. With her orgasm further enhancing her sensitivity, his touch turned partially painful, the feeling mixed in with everything else in an oddly pleasant way. He stopped for a brief moment when Ara truly needed to breath, maybe out of instinct guided by their recently created link, maybe out of conscious observance of her condition, maybe by pure chance, and started moving immediatly after, leaving her just the time to fill her lungs again while not really giving her any time to recover.

Eventually, his muscles stopped, his member throbbing and pulsating inside of her. As Ara leaned forward a bit, trying to catch her breath, Oberon pulled himself up a bit, effectively getting in a sitting position behind her, his hands moving to her belly, gently making sure there woulnd't be too much space left between them as he buried his face in her hair briefly before starting to lick her skin, covered in somewhat salty sweat. As her breathing got a bit more regular, she turned her head around as much as she could, looking for his mouth and, as if the thought had reached his mind, he responded. His face had, by that point, quite a few foxlike features, such as whiskers, a somewhat long snout and a thin but uniform layer of fur, but the sight was more alluring than anything else to her as their lips met, briefly at first, their mouths then closing on each other as they licked the other's lips and tongue.

Ara eventually pulled away as she tried to get up, but her legs gave out, her body still shakenn and she fell on her knees. Apparently she needed a few more minutes to recover. Oberon's breath was quite ragged too, but not as much as hers as he was about to get up from the bed. Maybe because she knew her words woulnd't have quite reached him, maybe out of something closer to instinct, she pushed her tails against him to stop him. He remained still for a few moments, her fur pleasantly caressing his face as she turned around, still kneeled on the floor. In part to buy herself some time to let her privates recover a bit, their sensitivity still dangerously high due to all the stimulations, in part for a different reason, she placed her face in front his member and slowly, maybe a bit hesitantly, she took it in her mouth. The condom had a taste that sort of reminded her of milk somehow, though all her juices covering it contributed with an entirely different flavor. She managed to reach the base of the layer of rubber, and had she had a clearer mind she'd have been rather surprised at her lack of gag reflex. Regardless, she gently bit down on the condom, grabbing it with her teeth, and began to pull it up, carefully, perhaps without fully processing the consequences. It actually took her quite a while to get it off completely, but for one reason or another Oberon remained still the whole time.

As she proceeded, the smell of his seed hit her nostrils with full force, giving her a brief but intense goosebump, her body heating up again. Ara briefly looked up upon having completely removed the condom, her eyes meeting his, then she simply let the rubber fall to the floor before taking his bare member between her lips again, her tongue rubbing its head a bit, her ears twitching whenever her mouth caused him to let out his voice. After having licked up what was left of his seed from the tip and having gulped it down bit by bit, its bitter taste filling her cheeks, she slowly pushed her lips further down, taking as much of his length as she could inside her mouth as she stroked him with her tongue. Oberon placed his hands on the back of her head, scratching the base of her ears. Ara remained still for a few seconds to enjoy the massage before starting to move her head back and forth while sucking on his member, her tongue constantly caressing him, her ears treasuring his low but uncontrolled voice whenever her touch caused him to let it out, quickly getting him over the edge, his fingers firmly grasping her head and pulling it in as she felt him throb.

With his member as deep down her throat as it could go, Ara had barely enough room for breathing as his seed released directly down her neck, making her cough up a little, her ears twitching wildly as she felt her muscles contracting, her inner walls clamping down on nothing as the combination of taste, smell and everything else kept her excitement as high as it could get. That said, Oberon hadn't trasformed as much as the other time -not yet, at the very least- and the knot hadn't formed yet, which allowed Ara to pull her head back when he loosened his grip on it. She took a few quick breaths, followed by a couple of deeper ones, his seed still in her mouth, a couple of drops trickling down her jaw as she swallowed it in three or four gulps. Then, without warning, Oberon grabbed her and nearly threw her on the bed, with her face down. Not exactly bothered by that, Ara felt his hand on her back as he got on the bed next to her. Then the largest of the beads got pulled out from her rear.

Partially gasping, partially moaning as the object pushed her open to leave her body, sending shivers of pleasure along her skin, Ara found herself firmly held down by his arm and knee on her back as he pulled the beads out, quickly, but not to the point she couldn't clearly tell when each single one left her rear, her flesh being pushed open then closing down again, a new moan filling the room with the passage of each bead. Once the toy had been completely removed, she could feel herself still somewhat agape. Her cheeks had since long turned as red as they physically could though. Oberon then leaned on her as he properly positioned himself before entering her rear. The mixture of his seed, her juices and her saliva, as well as the lube which had been smeared on the beads themselves, acted as a lubrificant of sort, while the toy had loosened her up quite a up. Combined with the fact that her transformation had progressed enough to make her body considerably more... flexible than it normally was, Oberon could push himself inside with a single thrust with no problems at all.

Ara let out a weak cry as a faint jolt of pain crossed her body, only to be quickly replaced by a feeling of fullness and pleasure. Holding her down with his own weight as well as with an hand grasped around her neck -his fingers applying nowhere near enough pressure to cause her any real harm- he started moving his hips again. A pleasure different from the previous ones spreaded through her body with every motion, hitting nerves that weren't as used to being stimulated, and feeling his claws resting on her neck added another thrill, enhancing the whole experience somehow. Her own moans echoing in her ears, Ara struggled a bit against his body. In response, Oberon rolled around, making them both end lying on their side.

The new position allowed him to lift her leg up, bringing it next to her chest, and closing his arm around it, holding it in place, completely exposing her privates and tearing the pantyhose as well. His other hand then moved to her empty, throbbing entrance, his fingers sliding in and scratching her inner walls as his thumb aggressively fondled her clit. By that point Ara's body was too exhausted to put up even a pretense of a struggle, her lips vocalizing the pleasure that had filled her bones and mind. The change of position also made it so that his thrusts were hitting a different spot, the new sensation quickly taking her over the edge. Her limbs began to tremble the very moment his claws dug into her flesh, on her ample breast, around her nipple, spilling a few, tiny drops of blood. Her moans stopped as the climax took over her body, shaking her every fiber, and just as the wave of pleasure was about to recede she felt his member pulsating, his hot seed starting to fill her, further prolongating her orgasm.

When the feeling began to abate, they both stopped moving, their ragged breaths filling each other's ears as he pulled himself out of her. His hands letting go of her, Ara turned around and raised her head a bit, enough to directly stare at him. His face was much closer to that of a fox than to that of an human by that point. Somewhat awkwardly as she was still lying on her side with her arms bound, Ara tried to take his member inside of her again, and Oberon aided her, her inner walls grasping him so tightly that even just staying still like that brought them pleasure, what little motions their mere breathing caused being enough to send jolts along their bodies. He held her and turned around, lying on his back with her on top of him.

Ara adjusted her position a bit, her legs spread wide, her hips resting on him as she straightened her back. Either not remembering that Oberon was no longer wearing a condom or simply not caring, Ara started moving her hips up and down, closing her eyes to completely focus on the heat building up between her legs, her dripping entrance sending waves upon waves of pure ecstasy reverberating through her body and mind. She then felt his hands groping her chest, further enhanching the pleasure as Oberon began to move his hips as much as the position allowed him to, matching her rythim, and stopping only when Ara did. Feeling her climax approacing, she went from moving up and down to wriggling her hips, scratching different spots within herself, the pleasure building up a bit slower than before to allow her to fully savor it.

She then felt the base of his member swelling up, pushing with more force against her sensitive parts, locking them together as his seed released inside of her, making its way to her cervix and womb, aided by her own muscles contracting again and again. The feeling finally brought her over the edge as well, and Ara's body stiffened as his nails pierced the skin of her breasts, her mind going completely blank as her breaths came to a complete alt, pure bliss reverbating from her bones to the tip of the fur at the end of her tails.

Even after the high had passed, the pleasure continued to linger for a few minutes, or maybe for longer, and Ara simply let herself fall down. His hands supported her weight for a brief moment before gently accompanying her fall, the two of them lying together on the sheets, still connected. Their tails then covered them up, the soft fur feeling pleasantly cold against their almost boiling bodies as he hugged her. Despite her complete exhaustion, she'd have probably returned the embrace had her arms been free. But since they were still bound, she simply rubbed her head against him a couple of times, savoring his warmth, his scent, his touch and even the sound of his breaths, knowing that he was doing the same with her.

It didn't take long for both of them to drift off into a deep, peaceful slumber.


	32. A Somewhat Weird Kind of Ordinary Days

**A Somewhat Weird Kind of Ordinary Days  
**

The first one to wake up was Ara. Her eyes opened slowly, over the course of a whole minute, maybe even two. She yawned as she tried to stretch her arms, but the cuffs were still binding them. The light clinking of the chains cleared her mind a bit as she looked around. It was night, but the moon was almost full, its light coming in through the window and illuminating the room, just barely enough for her to be able to make out her surroundings.

She was still lying on her bed, her clothes a disheveled mess, with all of her important parts exposed. That and, technically speaking, she wasn't actually lying on the bed but rather on Oberon, who by the look of it was still sleeping, his eyes closed, his arms still around her. His clothes were a bit ripped here and there, but all of his fox-like traits had disappeared, which is probably why she also couldn't feel him breathing and his skin was cold. His body had gone back to being fully mechanical. Had she not known better, she'd have thought he was a corpse. It was somewhat eerie, in a way. There was no longer any scent coming from him, but the sheets beneath them were still drenched, and the sight made her quickly go through the memories, her cheeks turning red. She wondered for a few moments about what to do and decided to wait rather than waking him up, partially because all things considered he made for a surprisingly comfortable resting spot.

Around half an hour went by before his eyes opened. When his consciousness returned he felt her warm body pressed against his before even seeing her. He briefly glanced at the window, the curtains pulled open revealing both the other buildings and the night sky on the other side of the glass. He then looked down at her. Her head was turned in a way that prevented him from seeing her face, so he coulnd't tell if she was still asleep or not. Her body had gone completely back to normal though, at least from what he could see. He felt that the same was true for his own, too. He remained still for a short while, feeling her chest moving with her every breath.

"Are you awake?" he eventually asked as he gently gathered her hair behind her.

"Yes. ... should we... get up now?"

He was about to tell her that he wouldn't have minded staying like that for a while longer, but on second thought he felt like he had already taken enough of her time. Or something along those lines.

"Sure" he replied as he let go of her and helped her up.

They both got on their knees, still on the bed, as he moved behind her to unfasten the leather cuffs.

"I should have taken these off as soon as we were done, sorry"

"That's my fault too" she said back as she moved her arms around.

The restraints weren't tight enough to obstruct the flow of blood, but having kept them on for that long had left her limbs rather sore, and in general going to sleep wasn't exactly advisable. Not to mention the marks that were left on her skin where the leather straps were. Marks which he found rather enticing.

"... how was it?" he asked as he adjusted his clothes, without moving from his spot.

"W-well..."

Ara blushed, but she was still giving her back to him so he couldn't see that. She fixed her clothes, though she really needed a shower. Or maybe a bath?

"We don't have to use them again if you didn't like them" he added, the cuffs still in his hands.

_Oh, he meant that..._

"A-actually... I wouldn't mind trying out some... other... things from that book... n-next time... if you... feel... like... it..." she replied, her voice turning more and more into a whisper with every word.

His reply came more slowly than he'd have expected.

"I wouldn't mind, no. ... quite the opposite, actually" he added, as he found his initial answer not to his liking.

A brief silence followed.

"... I've been thinking about what Eun said" he then spoke as Ara turned around "And I was wondering if I should start calling you 'mistress'"

"... eh?"

"The way she spoke about the current situation made me think that..."

"N-no, no, no, wait a moment there" she interrupted him as she turned around "I can see where you're coming from -I... think, at least... ? - anyway, that'd be really... awkward for me, so I'd really rather... well, not. Seriously, please don't" she said, also because she was sure Eve wouldn't have any of that.

"Alright. Sorry about asking. And... I didn't use a condom at the end, I apologize for that"

"T-that was my fault too, really. I was the one who... t-took it o-off..." she replied, every word causing the image of how exactly she had done that to flash in her eyes like an overly vivid memory.

Another brief silence followed, during which Oberon kept his fingers from fidgeting.

"I think we should take a bath now. Or would you rather have a shower?" she asked.

He stared at her. Her cheeks were red, but she was still looking straight at him.

"... together?"

"... i-if you want..."

_The idea is alluring, but I'm not sure I already want to test how much of my self-control has come back._

"That'd be rushing things a bit, wouldn't it?" he said, then he briefly glanced at the cuffs still in his hands "... though I guess we're past that already, aren't we?"

Ara laughed awkwardly in an attempt to deal with her own embarrassment.

"... you can go first then" she said as she got off the bed and put her coat back on.

"Ara" he stopped her as she was standing on the entrace, headed to the kitchen he guessed "About your previous work. I'd like to ask you to not do that alone"

Well, all things considered, she found that to be a reasonable request. Awkward as it was to hear it.

"I-I see, right... I might end up causing some trouble" she replied.

"I'm just a bit worried, some of the guests can be rather capricious at times. And... I like watching you doing that, too"

Her face suddenly turned bright red as she walked -almost hurried- away, Oberon staring at her back for the few steps it took her to leave his field of view. Then he turned his gaze to the box of toys lying next to the bed. Those had actually all been made there in the menagerie, which is why they were especially... let's say high-quality. Eve had once tried to add those sort of products to the lineup they offered, but they turned out less than popular. Mostly due to the fact that there were already a few established shops of that kind at the Fair, and most of those interested in those toys wouldn't go to the menagerie for that. Combined with the fact that their usual customers were more interested in their regular items than in those, most of them went unsold and ended up half-forgotten in the storage room.

 _I should tell the mistress that those products have been used_ he thought, though he believed she didn't really care about that box anymore, anyway.

And even if she did, she'd see it herself quickly enough regardless, as the cameras should have caught Ara carrying it to her room. Granted, said cameras had been removed from her room, but Eve really wouldn't have needed video proof to know why Ara had brought that box to her bedroom. Taking his minds to different shores, he put the cuffs back inside the box -he left the anal beads out with the intent of washing them later- before heading to the bathroom and closing the door behind himself. Then he walked in front of a mirror and took a look at his clothes, sligthly torn here and there.

 _I wonder how exactly I end up looking past a certain point_ he thought as he ran his fingers through some of the tearings on his shirt.

Then he turned around. His clothes had to be washed and sewed up a bit, that was for sure, but as for himself, he a simple shower would have been enough. Though, for once, he kind of felt like taking a bath instead. That would have taken much longer though, so maybe going with the shower was still the better idea. While he was thinking about that, Oberon froze for the better half of a minute. Then he went to the bathtub and turned on the faucet before walking downstairs, finding Ara in the kitchen.

"Done already?" she asked from her chair as she finished eating a couple of small snacks, an empty glass resting on the table next to her.

She then took a more proper look at him and noticed that no, he hadn't taken a shower yet.

"Is your offer still valid?"

Had she had fox ears rather than human ones, they'd have surely twitched. But since she didn't currently have them, all her body could do in response was blush a bit.

"Y-yes"

"Then, on second thought, I'd like to take you up on that"

She had a vague feeling that he wasn't as perfectly calm as he seemed to be, but thinking that maybe that was just her imagining things, she didn't put much trust in that feeling. A bit of hope maybe, but that's it. They cleaned up quickly in the kitchen then headed back upstairs, the bathroom feeling unusually far. Eventually, however, they reached it, closing the door behind them, the lights turned on to make the night outside the windows even darker. Though Ara decided to pull the curtains as soon as they walked in.

After a few seconds, which might or might not have turned into a good minute or two or silence, Oberon began to undress, starting from his gloves and shoes. Ara stared briefly then turned around, flustered, before starting to do the same. The sound of his clothes hitting the floor as he removed them seemed oddly loud to her, but that was most likely due to her overfocusing on that. As she stipped herself, however, she noticed that her pantyhose were torn between her legs, which distracted her from what was happening right behind her back. How exactly she had failed to realize what state that part of her outfit was in up until that point, one could only guess.

_Maybe I should have taken everything off before getting started..._

Thinking about it, they had both kept pretty much everything on. She didn't really mind that -kind of-, but she also couldn't help but wonder about how Oberon felt about it. She was about to drive those thougths away, but then stopped herself from doing that. Maybe to try and get herself more comfortable with such things. With her mind still lingering on that, she eventually ended up naked and folded her clothes in a not too orderly manner before leaving them on top of a stool. Then she finally turned around, and saw Oberon standing a couple of feet away from her, his gaze on her the same way hers was on him.

 _Eve sure knows how to make a man's body..._ she thought as she ran her eyes -somewhat sheepishly, but still- over his chest, shoulder, arms, the general upper half of his body.

His usual clothes, while not overly large, weren't quite form-fitting either and hid his physique quite well, but he was more muscular than she had thought, though not overly so either. Their eyes then crossed.

"Do you have any preferences?" he asked as he turned to the shelf over which were lined a few different products, mostly soaps and shampoos with two or three oils as well.

"Ah, that one" she replied, quickly pointing to the one that made the most foam, at least as far as she knew. She wasn't especially fond of bubbles though.

She remained still for a short while, during which Oberon finished preparing the bath, then he simply entered the tub and sat down, turning his head towards her.

"Aren't you coming in?" he eventually asked.

"Eh-ah, r-right"

Realizing that she was feeling quite cold standing there naked -and that she was standing naked in front of someone else-, she hopped into the tub, sitting in front of him. The water was pleasantly warm, maybe a bit too close to the hot end of the temperature spectrum if any, and above it floated an amount of foam large enough to hide everything lying beneath it. The bath was rather large, but not to the point their legs wouldn't touch when sitting inside it together, and their ankles crossed, though neither of them moved them aside. Ara sank a bit further down, the bubbly water reaching right beneath her chin. Oberon, on his part, leaned back against the edge of the tub, resting his head against the wall and apparently staring at the ceiling.

"... how are your clothes?" she asked to break the silence.

"Mostly fine, fixing them won't take much. I'm more concerned with yours, since they seem to always end up torn"

_That's somehow painful to hear_

"Right... w-well, we can just... y-you know... take e-everything off b... before getting started... next t-time..." she said, her cheeks turning redder as the words left her mouth. Though that might have been simply due to the hot water. That was a rather big "might" though.

Oberon turned his gaze towards her, their eyes meeting. Then, after a while, he went back to staring at the ceiling.

"If you want"

_... hold on._

"... you don't want to?" she inquired, somewhat confused both by her question and by how long it had taken him to answer.

"Not necessarily. It depends on how we do it, I think"

"What... do you mean?"

"People look better clothed than they do naked, don't they? Especially with certain attires. Undressing completely before having sex is convenient, I'm not denying that, but I believe that keeping at least something on is really important when it comes to visually please the partner and oneself, which improves the whole experience"

_That's... quite something there..._

Ara sank just a bit more into the water before speaking.

"... that doesn't really answer the part about how one should get undressed"

"Right. Clothed people look better, yes, but I believe undressing can be part of the experience too if done properly, or if there is some other meaning behind being naked"

"... w-wait, you're not talking about a striptease, are you?!"

Oberon fell silent for a few seconds before answering.

"... I guess that might work. Should I perform one next time?"

Ara's face completely changed color.

"You shoul wha- h-hold on a minute, you know how to do that?!" she bursted out, almost literally jumping to her feet, hot water splashing all around as she did so.

"No, actually, but your reaction makes me think I might have to read up on it" he replied as he moved his gaze on her. His eyes seemed to get particuarly captivated by a drop of water running down from her neck only to disappear between her breasts.

"Wait, that's not what I meant!"

"You'd rather I remain dressed again then?"

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean..."

She left herself sink into the water -also because it felt kinda cold outside- all the way to the forehead, and even that quickly disappeared beneath the foamy surface. She resurfaced a few seconds later and took a couple of deep breaths.

"You mentioned a meaning behind behind naked during... the act, but isn't that to... how do I say it... keeping the clothes on makes it feel a bit impersonal, doesn't it? I... think so, at least"

_... should I have undressed her completely then? And removed my clothes as well? ... the more I think about it, the more I feel like I have messed things up._

"How should I interpret your staying clothed then?"

"I-I just thought we'd take everything off during the... you know..."

"... with your arms cuffed?"

"I... might not have thought that through..."

"... impersonal, you say. I hadn't thought about it that way. Sorry"

"I don't want to sound contradictory but please don't apologize for not having stripped me. That feels... awkward"

"Right"

 _... this sort of relationship is a lot more complex than I had expected_ he thought.

"Is that why you never got undressed before your work sessions? To keep it professional?"

_"Keeping it professional" isn't exactly how I'd have said it._

"Actually... how do I say this... yes, there was that too, but it was also because... to be honest, skin contact with the guests down below doesn't always feel that... great... kind of... i-it's just different, really. It takes a while to get used to. And being naked is still embarassing. so... th-that was j-just work anway, I wasn't... m-making love... that's a... different thing..."

"I see. Yes, that makes sense"

 _What am I even saying?_ she mentally groaned as she sank deeper into the water.

"... what do you plan to do now?" he then asked.

"I think I'll go back to my house for a few days to make sure everything's still fine. Maybe I'll even bring back something I had left there. We can finish the match when I get back, if that's fine with you" she replied as she thanked the heavens for the change of subject.

_Right, we still have a game of chess going._

"I have no problems with that. Actually, do you want me to come help you with the cleanings?"

"Thanks but I think I'll pass this time"

They didn't really say much else after that, simply sinking in the water instead. Eventually, she got up and walked out the tub, thankful that her hair was long enough to offer something at least vaguely resembling some cover for her body as she reached for a couple of towels. She wrapped the larger one around herself and started wiping her head with the other. She then heard Oberon getting out as well, taking a few towels too and sitting on a stool next to her, at around an arm's length of distance. Having considerably less hair than her to dry, he finished quite a bit before her.

"Shall I get you a change of clothes?" he asked as he stood up and grabbed all of their garments, which were in need of a wash too.

"No, thanks" she replied.

There was a chance of him finding Obe if he searched her room for her spare clothes, and that wasn't exactly a thrilling perspective. So he left the bathroom, and a while later she did the same, turning the lights off as she closed the door behind herself. She found her bedsheets missing, but everything else was still where it had been left so she guessed he had just taken those to wash them. She got dressed then stared at the box, which was still lying open next to the bed. She closed the door of her room before moving the box on top of the table and taking a better look at what was inside.

_W-well, these things are so... wait, how do you even use this? And this other one should... no, hold on, why does it have a button?_

The ropes were as straightforward as they could get, and the same went for most of the other restraints inside there -albeith there were a couple ones she wasn't sure how were meant to be put on- but the toys were a lot more varied and, while most looked simple enough to use, there were more than a few she didn't really know how were supposed to be put to work, or of which she simply didn't get the possible appeal. Though that might have simply been due to her having never been inside a certain kind of store, otherwise she would have probably recognized mostly everything. Then she found something else. A certain piece of metallic underwear meant to coerce into chastity.

She put it back down into the box. Then she pulled it out again. Only to drop it back inside. And pick it up once more. She kept doing that for a good couple of minutes before eventually closing the box for good, with the chastity belt inside.

_Y-yeah, I'm not even sure if the key is there..._

Ara started to walk around in circles, having an internal debate about the benefits and drawbacks of steel undergarments compared to the more traditional fabric ones, until she got too distracted and ended up hitting her head against the wall, letting out a surprised yelp when the concrete greeted her forehead.

 _Let's leave that for later_ she thought as she rubbed her head where she had accidentally bonked it.

She then looked around a bit before taking out her luggages. She stared at the longer one for a while, then put it back away, as she didn't really feel the need to take her spear with her. She was just going back home for a few days after all. She then turned to the other, more conventionally sized suitcase and started packing a few things inside. Not many though, both because she didn't mean to take much with her and because most of the place in the suitcase was taken up by Obe, which she had told to curl up inside of it.

 _This feels somewhat immoral_ she thought as she closed the luggage with him within.

She then looked around for the pills she had bought, gulped one then, to distract herself a bit maybe, she walked downstairs and tried cooking something. Not much time went by before the sun started to rise, and soon after Oberon walked in. Maybe lured by the indescribable smell coming from the cookers.

"I tried making something" she said as she placed a couple of plates on the table.

He stared at what was either a sandwich or grilled meat, amazed at how the thing in front of him could somehow be similar to two so different dishes. That said, the scent wasn't bad. Just... most peculiar.

"Let's eat then"

Ara's eyebrow twitched as she bit down on the food, the overly potent taste threatening to permanently mark her tastebuds. It's not like she had never eaten her own dishes, quite the contrary actually, but she had gotten used to Oberon's meals which, while definitively not something a restaurant would be envious of, were still more... coherent that what she had just bitten, and over the past weeks she had gotten used to the more normal taste of his cuisine. It was somewhat weird how such a fact seemed to have a faintly negative influence on her own cooking, at least when she wasn't actively trying to make something more... proper, so to say.

"I... might still need a few lessons"

"I'm not sure a few would be enough" he replied.

Ara's shoulders dropped. As aware of the truth as she was, hearing it spelled out like that still hurt. A bit, at least.

"But we have a lot of time for that now"

"... we do, yes"

"How long do you plan to stay away?"

"It depends on what state the house is in, but... three, four days at most? I think"

"Very well" he replied as he stood up and started cleaning, and Ara noticed that his plate was empty. That was...nice.

She got up as well, headed to her room to take her luggage and then walked back downstairs, stopping in front of the kitchen elevator for a few moments before entering the kitchen.

"I'm leaving then"

He turned around before replying.

"Have a safe trip"

The city wasn't exactly a dangerous place, in all honesty. Far from it. Well, the Fair arguably was, but that was neither here nor there. And she wasn't exactly the helpless sort of girl either. He just didn't know what else to say, so he went with that. Ara stepped outside, and after a few steps she turned around to take a look at the menagerie before heading away. It took her a good couple of hours, maybe even three, to get to her house, partially because she took her sweet time. She saw a few people here and there on the streets along the way, but not many as it was still quite early. She looked around in her pockets for the keys, panicked for a moment as she didn't seem to have them on her, then finally found them and unlocked the door. At long last, she stepped inside her home, for the first time in a few months. As she had expected, there was... let's say a bit of dust on everything. A bit much. She turned the lights on, closed the door behind herself, put down the suitcase and opened it.

"You can do some cleaning, right? There's a locker with what I use for that in the other room"

In response, Obe got up, headed in the direction she had pointed to and, after having gotten the proper equipment -so to say- he started working.

"You sure are handy" she commented, though the mechanical doll with an unconventionally dangerous appearance didn't reply, not being programmed to.

Ara spent the rest of the day making sure everything was as she had left it and cleaning up a bit, with a brief trip to the grocery store to buy a few days worth of food. When, that night, she went to sleep she realized how used she had gotten to the canopy bed at the menagerie, as her normal one felt surprisingly weird in comparison. It made her feel somewhat exposed. Nowhere near enough to keep her awake though. The next day she checked if there was anything left to clean, but Obe had apparently kept working the whole night at a rather impressive speed. And he didn't just dust everything off either, he also cleaned the windows, washed the floors, removed all the spider webs, and other things like that. So she took the chance to have a walk around the area, paying a visit to a few shops she occasionally went to back before the egg incident with Eve. She bought a couple of things here and there before going back home, where she spent the rest of the day lazing around, simply enjoying being there. On the third day she went through her stuff, both those she had left there and those she had purchased the previous day, picking a few things to bring back with her. She had to look for a second suitcase though.

That didn't take long, and after lunch she pulled close all the curtains before calling out to Obe, who apparently had gone sitting in a wardrobe after having finished cleaning everything. After two and a half days of being alone with it in a private place, her self control ran out and she ended up spending the whole afternoon having some... fun with the younger looking Oberon, though doing that brought more than one embarassing memory back to the surface. She tried to make it speak a couple of times to see if she could get it to call her "big sister" during the act, but simply ended up confirming that it either couldn't or refused to speak. Later that day, while having dinner, she couldn't help but wonder if the reason she tried to have it say that was because she herself kept calling Aren "big brother" -well, he was, but she usually just called him "brother"- that time they had s-

Immediatly and brutally dragging her thoughts away from those memories, which were as pleasant as they were awkward and embarassing, she took a shower before going to sleep. On the forth day she woke up as late as usual, and after having a middle-ground between breakfast and lunch she gathered her luggages, locked everything, remained a brief while in front of her door and then eventually started walking, headed back to the menagerie, Obe in one suitcase, some of her other belongings in the other one. She decided to take a different route to see a bit more of the city, but ended up getting lost, spending a good three hours walking around aimlessly before eventually deciding to ask someone for directions. Around ninety minutes later, she finally reached the deserted neighborhood where the menagerie was located. She walked to the building she might as well have started calling her second house, and stopped in front of it.

Several thoughts crossed her mind. Someway, for one reason or another, she had come to term with how everything had started and what Eve had put her through. Despite the less than great start she had been off to, looking back at everything made it seem... not all that bad, let's stay. Though that itself still gave her mixed feelings. What was really on her mind at the moment was the situation with Oberon. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like there were things Eun had failed to mention. Or maybe she was just obsessing over small details.

She took a deep breath and grabbed the doorknob. As she did so, she realized that a part of her was actually looking forward to the next Fair. Well, maybe not to the public exhibition part, but the Tea House was a really nice place, and she was a bit curious about what else she might have found there during those days. Her mind lingering on several, mostly unrelated thoughts, she finally stepped inside. The first thing she saw was complete, utter darkness, accompanied by the sound of wings flapping and the feeling of something soft crashing against her face. Dropping her luggages, she grabbed the pillow that someone had clearly just thrown at her, only to realize that it wasn't a pillow, feathery as it was.

It was a small owl, a bit bigger than her head.

"... hold on"

She looked up and saw Oberon standing further down the hallway, sporting fox ears and tail.

"... what's this?" she asked as she turned the little creature around to show it to him.

"That's the egg carrier"

"The... you mean that sort of... belt? ... what?"

"After lying the egg, it usually turns into a surrogate owl to help the mother during the pregnancy. The chick eats the surrogate a month or so after the hatching if it's still alive by then, but in this situation I don't know how long it might live"

Ara turned the owl back around and stared at it, the little animal -?- returning her gaze.

"Well, it's... cute, I guess... it's not going to grow to that size, is it?"

"It shouldn't. That said, it also shouldn't have had enough time to extract from you the nutrients in needed to undergo the transformation either, so... this is somewhat of uncharted territory"

She stared at the little bird's eyes for a while, and for a brief moment they seemed to turn into those of a fox.

_... I hope I'm just seeing things_

Releasing the owl, which flied up only to land on her shoulder, she turned her gaze back at Oberon.

"Welcome back" he then said.

"... I'm home" she replied, not really sure if she had picked the right words.

She stared at his tail for a few moments before stepping further in, enough to close the door behind herself, then headed to her room. She stopped in front of the elevator to give another look at the owl standing on her shoulder, and the bird returned the stare with an hoot.

"What am I supposed to do with you?" she asked noone as she cast a quick glance at the sliding doors of the elevator before walking up, eventually getting to her bedroom.

The sheets had been replaced, but aside from that nothing had been moved. Well, she hadn't been away for long anyway. She opened one of her suitcases and let Obe out, making him go back inside the wardrobe. That was... starting to feel normal, actually.

She then unpacked her stuff -the owl moved to a chair when she started moving around too much- and then pulled the manual from the drawer she had left it in, together with the magnifying glass. She spent the next few hours reading it, starting from the part about that owl, and not because of a coincidence. Eventually Oberon knocked at her door, around when the sun was setting.

"Dinner's ready?" she asked as she opened the door.

"Almost, but I'm here for a different reason. There's a package for you" he replied, a box a bit larger than his chest in his hands.

"For me?"

She took the box from him and placed it on the table, then saw a letter attached to its side. She unwrapped it and recognized Eun's handwriting on the inside.

"This is weird, her response shouldn't have arrived so soon"

Then again, that was Eun they were talking about. A package from her arriving much earlier than expected was one of the least surprising things Ara could think of in relation to the fox.

"What does it say?" he asked, his gaze briefly moving to the sleeping owl before resting on her.

She unfolded the letter and started to read, giving him a brief summary of what was written there.

"Inside here should be some potted plants" she said as she pointed to the box "Oh, wait, I know these, they're from the area around my village... I... didn't know they were used to make contraceptives though... " she added as she kept reading "She says they should be more... effective than the normal ones due to our current conditions. Oh, she also detailed how to make it"

She then folded the letter, since she didn't want him to see the part where Eun reassured Ara that she could wait for as long as she wanted for grandchildren. She could almost see her smirk on the other side of the words written on the letter.

"I see. That's a relief"

"It really is"

They proceeded to spend the next three minutes or so looking at each other, occasionally glancing at some random spot within their field of vision before going back to gazing at the other.

"The meal should be ready by now"

"Oh, right"

As soon as Ara stepped outside the room, the owl woke up and flew to her shoulder, resting on it. Feeling its claws through her coat was a bit unnerving at first, but she got used to that rather quickly. Dinner went by normally, Ara eating rather silently while Oberon kept reading a book, which one she couldn't tell since they still all had a blank cover. The bird stole a piece of meat from her dish before they could give it something to eat, but aside from that nothing really happened.

"So... what now?" she asked once they were done cleaning the kitchen.

"We haven't finished that chess match yet"

"Right. That's a start"

Needless to say, he ended up losing.

* * *

The next day went by rather normally, and the same applied to the following one. Ara spent most of it reading in her room, and even finding out -albeith accidentally- that the owl somehow knew not only what a snack was, but also how to fetch her one from the kitchen. One evening she went down to the lower floors, but ended up merely walking in circles, a bit unsure about what to do. The distance between her and Oberon when they sat at the table kept growing, by a chair every twenty-four hours more or less, and during breakfast of the third day she decided to have a little chat with him. After having dragged her gaze from his tails to his face, that is.

"How are you doing?"

The one to ask, however, was him.

"Eh? Fine, I'd say. Why?"

"I noticed that you've been stopping in front of the elevator somewhat often"

"Well, about that..." she replied as she ran her gaze around the room, her fingers starting to play with her cowlick, a gesture that inadvertently caught his attention "I was just thinking that I should really get to work, so..."

"Which one of the two kinds?"

Her head dropped down, her hair covering her eyes from his stare as her face grew flushed.

"B... b-both... but what about you?" she asked back to change the subject a bit "How are you doing with... that?" she inquired as she pointed to his fox ears with her gaze.

"I believe I can handle it well enough for another... couple of days, I think. Definitively less if I oversee your work"

Her face turned red. Redder than before, that is. And for some reason the owl, which had moved from her shoulder to one of the empty chairs when she had started eating, hoothed.

"Have you decided on a name for it?"

"No, I haven't even started thinking about it actually. I... really have no idea what to come up with" she replied as she raised her head.

So. She had Obe, which she had had rather... child-unfriendly interactions with on more than one occasion. She had an owl, with which she had had a... most peculiar first contact. And, in a certain sense, she had Oberon, with whom she was... she wasn't sure how to summarize that part. As she realized that, Eun's words about an harem came back to haunt her, for better or for worse. He noticed one of her eyes twitching, though he had no idea what might have caused that.

"Should I wait for you at the elevator, then?" he asked.

"I'd like to take a shower first, if you don't mind" she replied as she got up.

_Now? Not after?_

"I have to ask, do you have any particular guest in mind? I might have to prepare something beforehand depending on your answer"

Ara had already gotten to the door when he spoke, but she stopped and turned around.

"W-well, I was... thin... king... a-about... I'm not s-sure... m-maybe... " she stuttered, her face turning redder and redder as his question forced her mind onto a rather embarassing train of thoughts "... j... y-you can pick one for me!" she then nearly shouted as she ran away, a part of her not quite believing what she had just asked to do. A very small one though.

Oberon took a bottle of something faintly resembling juice from a drawer and drank a couple of glasses, then cleaned up everything inside the kitchen and headed to the warehouse. He had been picking the guests for Ara from the start, so doing that again wasn't really a problem, though his yardstick for the choice had changed a bit. He decided on one fairly quickly and started to search for a collar similar to the one Ara had had to wear while still being indebted to Eve. If possible, he'd have liked for her to keep it on while doing that work since it would still warn him immediatly if something bad but not clearly visible happened to her, such as internal injury or disease. Granted, she likely had more chances at winning the lottery twice than getting hurt doing that, but still. And they had the key already, so they could also take it off as soon as she was done. As he headed to the lower levels of the warehouse, where he was fairly sure those collars had been left, he passed in front of the surveillance cameras he had removed from Ara's room.

He stopped in front of them for a moment, his mind once more going through everything that had happened. Quite a few unexpected events had taken place in the menagerie since Ara's arrival, and both their lives ended up taking quite the odd direction -hers moreso than his he believed- but things seemed to have... stabilized, albeith in a quite weird way. And, looking at how his new routine was shaping up to be, he couldn't say that he disliked it. And, all things considered, the same was true for Ara.

Maybe they still needed some time to really adjust to the additions to their routine but, overall, their new ordinary looked promising.

Right before walking away, he noticed that one of the cameras was still turned on and recording. He picked it up and realized that the power button was a bit damaged. After a few tries, however, the camera gave in and deactivated.

_Surveillance camera J H - 06 could not be found.  
Storage of audio-video recording has been interrupted._

_Reconnection attempts failed.  
Checking system logs._

_Surveillance camera J H - 06 has been turned off._

_Remove camera J H - 06 from the active network?_

_-Yes -No -Other  
_

Somewhere far away from the menagerie, Eve groaned silently. She liked to replay the registrations of Ara's performances in one of her eyes during the most tedious parts of her work to keep herself entertained, but lately she had started to wonder if that hadn't been a bit too harsh on her privacy. No longer using her constant supply of new videos was quite bothersome, but maybe she did owe that to Ara. They were still friends, after all. She just had to find something else to broadcast in her eye.

__Yes__

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a lot for reading, hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
